03/March/22

 

Yesterday we published our analysis of conflicts of interest in the "independent" GMO advisory body to the UK government, ACRE. We thought what we'd found was bad enough – that 100% of the members have potential or actual conflicts of interest with the GMO industry or with other promoters of GMOs such as the Gates Foundation. But what we missed was that the chair of ACRE, Prof Jim Dunwell, was a founding member of CropGen, a biotech industry-funded lobby group that describes its mission as "to make the case for GM crops and foods", according to a news report. We've updated our analysis with this scandalous information. GMWatch

 

 

Last year Stop Gene Drives, a campaign of Save Our Seeds, released an accessible and informative film on why gene drives (a way of forcing a GM trait through a whole population) are not a sensible approach to removing invasive species. Mice, squirrels, ferrets, wasps, fruit flies and toads are among the species on gene drive proponents' wish list to be removed from ecosystems. Scientists and experts interviewed in the film warn that gene drives are not suitable for conservation purposes and are not needed, even to solve problems such as malaria. Interviewees include Dr Kevin Esvelt, a developer of gene drives, who warns about dangers of releasing them into the environment; as well as Dr Doug Gurian-Sherman, Dr Ricarda Steinbrecher, Prof Ignacio Chapela, Ali Tapsoba, Lim Li Ching, Dr Helen Wallace, and Prof Fern Wickson. Stop Gene Drives

 

 

CBAN has published a useful new fact sheet on patents on gene editing, particularly CRISPR-Cas9. While the fact sheet focuses on Canada, many aspects apply more generally. The fact sheet explains that the patent landscape for CRISPR-Cas9 is already highly complex and that the few biotechnology companies that dominate the global commercial seed and pesticide markets also dominate the patents on genome editing. Corteva (formerly DowDupont) is the top CRISPR patent holder. The conclusion is that the patenting of genome editing will facilitate more corporate control over seeds than occurred with the patenting of first generation GMOs. CBAN