12/July/22

 

In a victory for Missouri peach farmer Bill Bader and environmentalists, the US Court of Appeals for the Eight Circuit issued a decision holding Monsanto-Bayer and BASF responsible for unprecedented damage to Mr Bader's orchard caused by the companies' GM dicamba herbicide-tolerant crop system. In 2021, Center for Food Safety (CFS) filed a legal brief in support of Mr Bader, who successfully sued Monsanto-Bayer and BASF for devastation of his 1,000-acre peach orchard caused by dicamba drift. The brief defended the February 2020 district court verdict in favour of Bader — in which a jury awarded him $265 million, subsequently reduced to $75 million — against the two firms' appeal of the decision to the Eight Circuit Court of Appeals. Center for Food Safety via Common Dreams

 

 

Anyone who thinks GMOs bring food security should consider the case of Brazil, the second biggest grower of GMO crops in the world, doing immense environmental damage in the process, while most of its GMO soy goes to factory farms. Meanwhile, "hunger has spread throughout the country" and now affects 33.1 million people. @GMWatch on Twitter, commenting on article in IPS News

 

 

Given the ban on neonicotinoid pesticides, crop protection scientists are trialling multiple environmentally friendly means of deterring aphids from attacking beets and transferring virus yellows into the crop. [GMW: It's good to see conventional crop protection scientists engaging in this kind of research on alternatives to pesticides – inspired by a ban. In other words, this research and the solutions it has found were prompted by regulation.] BBC Sounds via @GMWatch on Twitter

 

 

Europe has strict regulations on GMOs – for our safety and transparency. But now, big chemical companies have convinced the EU Commission to stop checking and labelling some GMOs. They're trying to increase their profits by getting the "GMO" label off their products. More of us would buy their products without knowing that we're eating GM food. Please send a strong message to all our governments and the EU Commission that we want them to prioritise safety and transparency over corporate profits. Europe, keep checking and labelling GMOs! WeMoveEurope

 

 

According to a new survey in France, 91% of French people want retailers to be transparent and clearly label the presence of new GMOs on their products. It's time for retailers to get on board and pledge their support for the strict regulation and labelling of new GMOs that their customers require. And 77% of French people want them to be subject to strict regulations (the same as those applied to other GMOs), i.e. risk assessment, authorisation, traceability, and mandatory labelling. Greenpeace France via @GMWatch on Twitter

 

 

UK environment minister George Eustice is said to have told Americans on a trade visit that he hoped the government’s Genetic Technology Bill would be passed by parliament this year – which would move the UK closer to US GMO food norms. So if you were wondering why the UK government was rushing through a GMO deregulation bill that its own advisors say is "not fit for purpose" and every survey shows is not what the public wants, then here's the answer from the Minister himself: To bring UK food standards down to the level of those in the US (very little regulation of GMOs and none for new GMOs). @GMWatch on Twitter comment on article in The Grocer

 

 

In her new book on the story of DDT, How to Sell a Poison, Elena Conis shows how scientific facts can change depending on the context, the questions that we ask, and the interests pursuing the answers to those questions. In an interview, Conis said, "We treat science as a source of concrete, unyielding, indisputable answers. But science is a process and scientists bring to this process all of their pre-existing biases, prejudices and assumptions. If we could just acknowledge that, it would help restore public trust in science... The [DDT] ban distracted us from the fact that pesticide use was only increasing and has continued to increase... We’re just repeating everything all over again, using new chemicals without understanding the full scope of their impact or their long-term effects." Civil Eats

 

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