14/July/22

 

Bayer told the Huffington Post that the firm “no longer provides financial support” to the Genetic Literacy Project (GLP) website, well known for its attacks on the agrochemical industry’s critics. But the GLP’s site and tax documents show that Bayer gave the GLP USD100,000 last year. Prof Jack Heinemann pointed out that this means about 20% of the GLP’s funding comes from Bayer. So at what point is the GLP considered just a Bayer subsidiary, Heinemann asked. In fact, the Bayer-funded GLP has just published a piece defending glyphosate, the key ingredient in Roundup, one of Bayer's most lucrative products. The article was written by Kevin Folta, a former Bayer consultant who is understood to have been paid around $200,000 by the company for his work. Yet neither the GLP’s or Folta’s substantial financial connections to Bayer are disclosed anywhere in the article. Other GLP funders include AquaBounty, the GMO salmon firm. @GMWatch on Twitter

 

 

In Sri Lanka, the consequences of the surge in energy costs are ore severe. Rocketing wholesale prices of oil and natural gas on international markets have played a part in the island nation’s economic crisis. So too, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, has the burgeoning international debt Sri Lanka has faced since the COVID-19 pandemic, exacerbated by tax cuts introduced by the government. A ban on imports of chemical fertilisers has reduced crop yields, writes Bob Ward in The Times, but it was only in place between April and November last year. It is far too simplistic to suggest this is the main cause of the bloody insurrection sweeping the country. The Times

 

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