21/June/22

 

A conference on "GMO Regulation for genomic techniques: Environmental and consumer protection aspects" was hosted by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection in Brussels on 13 June. Speakers addressed the European Commission's proposal to weaken the regulations around certain types of new GMOs. The conference featured memorable presentations by several speakers, including:
* The German environment minister, who delivered evidence-based warnings on risks to health, the environment, and the organic sector from new GMOs.
* A European Commission official, a proponent of deregulation, who nevertheless made important concessions on labelling and traceability of new GMOs.
* A researcher who described her findings on the detection of new GMOs.
The intelligent and well-informed discussion contrasted starkly with a recent UK Parliament "debate" on the UK government's GMO deregulation bill, which was dominated by Conservative politicians who misled the public and Parliament with false statements about new GM techniques. GMWatch

 

 

The US Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected Bayer's bid to dismiss legal claims by customers who contend its Roundup weedkiller causes cancer as the German company seeks to avoid potentially billions of dollars in damages. The justices turned away a Bayer appeal and left in place a lower court decision that upheld $25 million in damages awarded to California resident Edwin Hardeman, a Roundup user who blamed his cancer on the pharmaceutical and chemical giant's glyphosate-based weedkillers. The Supreme Court's action dealt a blow to Bayer as the company manoeuvres to limit its legal liability in thousands of cases. Reuters

 

 

Associate professor Brian Dowd-Uribe explains in a short Tweetorial why hyping GMOs as a solution to the climate crisis doesn't make sense scientifically. In response to claims that GMOs boost yields, reducing land conversion to agriculture and therefore reducing greenhouse gas emissions, he points out that there is no scientific consensus on GM crops boosting yields, nor is the science clear that yield increases result in land not being used for agriculture. Brian Dowd-Uribe on Twitter @bdowduribe