09/June/22

 

A HEAL report published yesterday shows that scientific evidence proving that glyphosate is carcinogenic has so far been dismissed in the EU scientific assessment that will form the basis for the re-approval discussion of its EU market licence. The serious scientific shortcomings and distortions in the interpretation of EU and international scientific standards highlighted in the report also call into question the validity of the assessment and its preliminary conclusions. GMWatch

 

 

Weedkillers that contain glyphosate would be banned from use on New York state properties under a proposal announced by the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation. The proposed regulation would implement a 2020 law that amended New York’s Environmental Conservation Law to restrict glyphosate, a common herbicide found in Roundup. Bloomberg Law (paywalled)

 

 

The European Coordination Via Campesina (ECVC) has written to the European Commission in an open letter expressing its refusal to participate in the ongoing public consultation on new genomic techniques. In the letter, ECVC denounced a biased consultation process that does not permit people to express opposition to the European Commission's initiative to deregulate new genomic techniques, which is to be adopted in the course of the year 2023. Indeed, the formulation of the great majority of the questions in this consultation attempt to force people to accept the possibility of abandoning the current GMO legislation. ECVC adds that the consultation is based on erroneous legal presuppositions or inaccurate or unfounded information, which the group details in a French language analysis. GMWatch

 

 

Bayer-Monsanto is the worst corporate offender when it comes to the illegal dumping of pesticide containers in Argentina. That's why they've been given the largest fine — 132 million pesos. The second worst offender is Syngenta. Economía Sustentable (Spanish language article)

 

 

A research contract gave multinational pesticide manufacturers Bayer and Syngenta ample influence over pesticide research conducted at a state university. Experts in research ethics found fault with the influence the contract gave the funders, and linked the situation to broader transparency failures in corporate-funded research. Resulting scientific studies only acknowledged the funds the pesticide manufacturers contributed to the project, despite the contract granting them influence over the study methods. University researchers say this is because the pesticide manufacturers’ involvement was less than what was outlined in the contract. US Right to Know

 

 

Emails obtained by US Right to Know suggest that top virologists may have privately discussed all theories of the pandemic origin in the days after they began outlining an article that dismissed the lab leak theory. US Right to Know

 

 

A team of scientists convened by the World Health Organization to better understand the origins of the coronavirus pandemic and possible future outbreaks has said a theory that the virus could have escaped from a laboratory needs “further investigations.” The scientists' report said that available data suggests SARS-CoV-2 had a zoonotic origin, which means it spread between animals in a natural setting, but that neither the animal that infected humans nor the place where this infection occurred could be identified. The Washington Post