22/February/22

 

While a strong scientific consensus now exists on the need to move away from an agriculture doused with pesticides, regulatory agencies continue to allow the marketing of new “plant protection” products — and the regulation of glyphosate highlights this failure, according to an article in Le Monde by science correspondent Stéphane Foucart. Foucart criticises the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) for publishing in a non-transparent manner the critical comments it received on the favourable preliminary expert report on glyphosate concocted by four Member States (France, Sweden, Netherlands and Hungary). The 450 comments have been made available only in a non-searchable format, scattered across 142 pages of EFSA's website. GMWatch

 

 

The results of the most comprehensive glyphosate testing of food products ever conducted in the US were released by The Detox Project today, in a report that shows the true levels of weedkiller contamination in essential foods sold by some of the top grocery stores in the country. The world’s most used weedkiller, glyphosate, was discovered in a wide range of essential food products including bread, pulses and grains from top grocery stores such as Hy-Vee, Whole Foods Market, Amazon, Walmart and Target. GMWatch

 

 

The House of Lords' Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee has published a highly critical report on the draft Genetically Modified Organisms (Deliberate Release) (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2022 which will make it easier to plant experimental GMO crops in England. Read Beyond GM's analysis of the committee's criticism and what's wrong with the draft regulation – and join the e-action now to send a message directly to your MP and let them know this amendment should not be passed. Beyond GM via GMWatch

 

 

DEFRA'S enthusiastic embrace of gene editing crop technology has been the subject of withering scrutiny by the House of Lords' Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee (see above), which has described the lack of detail in the plan to legalise field trials as "astonishing" and "unsatisfactory". The Lords' criticism focuses on the UK government's decision to make a major change to its policy on GMOs via secondary legislation, rather than through a Bill in its own right, which would have allowed "thorough and robust" scrutiny by Parliament. But the Lords also took issue with the scant detail in the draft legislation, noting that it does not offer any guidance on the criteria by which GM plants would be judged safe to plant outdoors. The Scottish Farmer

 

 

Australia's revolving door allows government ex-regulators, officials and MPs to serve the industries they once vetted as public servants. Dr Joe Smith has been appointed chair of the Agricultural Biotechnology Council of Australia (ABCA), which CropLife, the National Farmers Federation (NFF) and AusBiotech founded a decade ago to promote the agricultural biotech and chemical industries. ABCA describes its new chair, Joe Smith, as "former national Gene Technology Regulator, Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority and Director of the Therapeutic Goods Administration Laboratories". GMWatch

 

 

Research shows that the escape of viruses from laboratories and supposedly contained experiments is a common occurrence. In addition, many pandemics have arisen from lab escapes and almost all have not been directly zoonotic (arising from a natural spillover from animals to humans). Even when viruses do ultimately originate in animals and make the jump into humans, they mostly fester in a separated community of human beings for many years – centuries or millennia – before spreading during abnormal movements of people due to wars and famines, writes Professor Paul R. Goddard. Prof Goddard's overview of the history of lab leaks and gain-of-function studies shows that claims by Anthony Fauci and Peter Daszak about the origins of COVID-19 are false. GMWatch