24/August/22

 

Science Magazine recently published a paper reporting massive yield gains in rice, thanks to genetic engineering. The hype surrounding the paper was comprehensively debunked by Merritt Khaipho-Burch, a young scientist studying plant breeding. Even stalwart GMO boosters like Pam Ronald had to agree with her devastating takedown. Now Science Magazine has done it again, publishing and heavily promoting a paper in which US-based scientists report that genetic engineering soybean plants to make photosynthesis more efficient has increased the total crop yield by 20%. News of this generated even more media excitement than the rice paper. But Khaipho-Burch has yet again burst the bubble of hype. GMWatch

 

 

The EU GMO safety rules are under threat. Big chemical and seed corporations are pushing the EU to allow new GMOs onto the market without safety tests, monitoring nor consumer labelling. These companies have been lobbying the European Commission for years to exclude new GMOs from the European GMO regulation, making unsubstantiated claims on the supposed benefits for sustainability. But as they also hold patents on the seeds engineered with these techniques, their true motivation remains to increase their profits. Such an industry takeover of seeds would seriously threaten farmers’ seed autonomy and agricultural biodiversity as a whole. Following industry pressure, the European Commission is now taking the first steps to deregulate new GMOs. Sign the petition against new GMO deregulation! You can sign wherever you are in the world. Corporate Europe Observatory

 

 

The international nonprofit, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) prohibits FSC member companies from using genetically engineered (GE) trees for commercial purposes, in certified or non-certified areas. However, FSC allows associated companies to conduct research field tests of GE trees in non-certified areas, a decision that has already allowed companies to advance their GE trees development. Now, FSC has launched a “genetic engineering learning process” that proposes to directly overseeing selected field tests of GE trees. Sign the petition demanding that the FSC reaffirms its commitment to its policy that prohibits the use of GE trees globally! You can sign as an individual or as an organisation (provided you have the authority to do so), and wherever you are in the world. StopGETrees

 

 

The world’s most widely used weedkiller has been linked to convulsions in animals for the first time, according to startling new research by US academics. Industrial quantities of glyphosate – the herbicide used in RoundUp weedkiller – are sprayed across agricultural land and used in gardens around the world, with a recent report warning that more than 80 per cent of urine samples from people in the US now contained glyphosate due to its pervasiveness in the food chain. With GM glyphosate-resistant crops (originally engineered by RoundUp’s parent company Monsanto) now accounting for over 80 per cent of all US crops,and being grown commercially around the world, use of glyphosate is projected to rise even further. However, the research now raises serious questions about the potential impact of glyphosate on the nervous system. [GMW: We reported on this study in yesterday's Daily Digest but it is getting a lot of interest in the media so it's worth a boost.] The Independent

 

 

The US National Institutes of Health has announced it is finally cutting off a subaward to the Wuhan Institute of Virology after it continued to refuse to hand over key information about the gain-of-function coronavirus research it conducted with US tax dollars. NIH deputy director Michael Lauer made the revelation in a letter to House Oversight Committee Republicans, in which he said the Wuhan lab had refused to turn over lab notebooks and electronic files connected to its research funded through an NIH subaward given to it by the US-based EcoHealth Alliance (EHA), headed by the hugely controversial British zoologist Peter Daszak. But Lauer indicated the NIH may continue funding EcoHealth’s much criticised bat coronavirus research despite the group’s documented noncompliance issues, its close links to the Wuhan institute, and its history of funnelling hundreds of thousands of US tax dollars to the Wuhan lab. The NIH’s Lauer also said that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which has been led by Dr Anthony Fauci for decades, “will begin to engage with EHA to renegotiate the specific aims and objectives of the... grant without the involvement of WIV." Washington Examiner

 

 

Dr Anthony Fauci has announced that he will be stepping down from the positions of Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and Chief of the NIAID Laboratory of Immunoregulation, as well as the position of Chief Medical Advisor to President Joe Biden. He will be leaving these positions in December of this year "to pursue the next chapter of my career". However, Fauci added, "I am not retiring... I plan to pursue the next phase of my career... to inspire and mentor the next generation of scientific leaders." Some reactions to the announcement can be read on the Twitter thread of Professor Richard H. Ebright, a longtime critic of Fauci who has been outspoken about the dangers of gain-of-function virus research, such as that funded at the Wuhan Institute of Virology by Fauci's NIAID via the EcoHealth Alliance. NIH; Richard H. Ebright on Twitter @R_H_Ebright

 

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