05/August/22

 

Many countries are currently reflecting on the legal status of GMOs resulting from new genetic modification techniques, and some have already decided. It is not easy to give an exhaustive picture of all the positions and legislation adopted. It is sometimes difficult to have access to national legislation, national positions may be unclear at this stage, and the scope and categories of new techniques defined in national legislation may vary. Nevertheless, an investigation by Inf'OGM shows that it is mainly a minority of economically powerful countries that have decided to deregulate GMOs resulting from new GM techniques. Inf'OGM

 

 

Historically, the protection of living organisms through patents has been developed in the United States and Europe. Abandoning a conservative position, the US Supreme Court validated a patent on a GM bacterium in 1980. This institution defined the micro-organism as a “composition of matter”, opening up the field of patentability of living matter. In Europe, “essentially biological processes” are not patentable – and the products derived from them are no longer patentable, following a reversal in patent case law. Inf'OGM

 

 

The US Environmental Protection Agency has told the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that it wasn't given enough time to reevaluate its determination that the active ingredient in Monsanto's weedkiller Roundup was not likely to cause cancer. In June, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit gave the EPA until Oct 1 to issue a new interim registration review decision for glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto's weedkiller Roundup, after the three judges unanimously found that the agency's cancer risk determination was not backed by adequate evidence. But the EPA now says there's no way that it's going to meet that deadline. Law360

 

 

For too long, companies that have been sued over dangerous products (such as glyphosate) have been able to hide the truth from the public through broad court orders and settlement agreements. But legislation pending in Sacramento, the Public Right to Know Act, would greatly limit such secrecy and save countless lives. Senate Bill 1149 would create a presumption against secrecy in civil litigation in cases involving a defective product or environmental hazard that “has caused or is likely to cause significant or substantial bodily injury or illness or death". This is a commonsense and long-overdue reform. The Sacramento Bee

 

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