03/January/22

 

On January 1, 2022, a new federal law requiring labelling of genetically engineered (GE), or "bioengineered," foods went into effect. Center for Food Safety (CFS) is currently waging a legal battle to rescind these final labelling regulations, issued by the Trump administration's USDA. The suit describes how the regulations leave the majority of GMO-derived foods unlabelled; discriminate against tens of millions of Americans by allowing the use of QR codes as a stand-alone for labelling products; prohibit the use of the widely-known terms "GMO" and "GE"; and prohibit retailers from providing more information to consumers. Mark Squire, co-owner and manager of Good Earth Natural Foods, said, "I believe that USDA's GMO labelling law forces me, as a grocer, to engage in deceptive labelling. I cannot look my customers in the eye unless I do whatever I can to stop this misleading labelling system that is so obviously designed to protect the agro-chemical and biotech industry at the expense of consumers everywhere." Center for Food Safety

 

 

Amid an ongoing lawsuit (see above) challenging deceptive Trump-era USDA regulations for labelling genetically engineered foods, the Center for Food Safety announced the launch of a consumer action campaign. "Consumers have fought for decades for their right to know what's in their food and how it's produced," Meredith Stevenson, an attorney for the Center for Food Safety (CFS), said. "But instead of providing meaningful labelling, USDA's final rules will only create more uncertainty for consumers, retailers, and manufacturers." Andrew Kimbrell, CFS executive director, called the rules "a regulatory scam". CFS is set to launch a nationwide consumer campaign using "citizen investigators" to identify corporations using QR codes instead of on-package text or symbol labelling to conceal their use of GMOs. Those companies will then be pressured to adopt on-package text or symbol labelling in addition to QR codes. Common Dreams

 

 

Social activists working among farmers led by Kavitha Kuruganti have come out against the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India's (FSSAI) draft regulation on genetically modified (GM) food, terming it "unacceptable". FSSAI should explicitly say GM foods will not be allowed into India by way of production or imports, Coalition for GM-Free India, which Kuruganti represents, has demanded. "Any kind of GM food in India is a threat to health of our people, to our environment, and to the diverse food cultures of India," said Kuruganti. "FSSAI is trying to circumvent all of this," she said. The Economic Times

 

 

Coalition for a GM-Free India has published its submission to the FSSAI on its draft regulation on GM food. The Coalition notes that the draft regulation fails to "embed several critical aspects that are essential to policy-driven, science-based regulation of GM foods, that are conducive to India’s unique and diverse food systems, health and consumption conditions, and consumer/citizen preferences, in addition to state government policies". The Coalition demands "independent studies in public domain that establish safety of long term use of GMOs and GM foods". Coalition for a GM-Free India

 

 

The US Environmental Protection Agency is assessing whether the herbicide dicamba can be sprayed on soybean and cotton plants genetically engineered to resist the chemical, without the procedure posing “unreasonable risks” to other crops, an agency official said. Farmers and scientists have reported problems with dicamba drifting away from where it is sprayed on fields, causing damage to plants whose genes have not been modified to resist the weedkiller. The EPA said it received about 3,500 reports this year indicating that more than one million acres of non-dicamba-tolerant soybean crops were allegedly damaged when the chemical drifted from where it was applied. Trees and crops like rice and grapes also suffered damage, the agency said. Insurance Journal

 

 

The editor of one of the world's most prestigious medical journals has admitted it took more than a year to declare the conflict of interests of a scientist who denounced the Covid lab leak theory and called anyone who questioned the official Chinese narrative a conspiracy theorist. Dr Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet, said it took 16 months to publish an official conflict of interest statement in which he revealed Peter Daszak had links to the Wuhan laboratory at the centre of the spillover theory. Daszak organised the letter in February 2020, co-signed by 26 other leading researchers which condemned "conspiracy theories" that Covid did not arise naturally. Daily Mail