| Big Agriculture casts itself as climate champion ahead of COP27 A US-led sustainable farming initiative, which aims to raise billions of dollars to tackle climate change, has been criticised for favouring big business and promoting uncertain technofixes ahead of UN climate talks in Egypt in November. Launched at the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow last year by the US and United Arab Emirates governments, the AIM for Climate (Aim4C) coalition pledged to accelerate innovation in agriculture and food systems to support climate action. Alongside 40 states, partners include major agribusinesses, such as Brazilian meat giant JBS, and agricultural trade groups such as CropLife International, as well as research centres such as the University of Edinburgh’s Climate Change Institute. Multi-billion-dollar nonprofits the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Nature Conservancy are also taking part. Backers say the coalition aims to unlock new technologies that can help reduce the sector’s major contribution to climate change and make harvests more resilient. But food and farming groups have publicly criticised Aim4C, accusing it of championing industry-friendly and unproven climate “solutions” instead of spurring a transformative embrace of diverse, regenerative agriculture. DeSmog UK: Roundup promoter appointed as environment secretary New UK prime minister Rishi Sunak has appointed Thérèse Coffey MP as Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs at the food, farm and environment ministry DEFRA. Last time Coffey was an environment minister she tweeted that she was "Getting ready to deploy the amazing Roundup" alongside a picture of Monsanto’s product. Now she's the most senior minister at DEFRA — with Mark Spencer, who's been described as "our own little Bolsonaro" (a reference to the Amazon-destroying Brazilian president), at her side. @GMWatch on Twitter Kenyan opposition leader: We will fight GMOs in courts and on farms across the country Raila Odinga, leader of the opposition in Kenya, has reiterated his opposition to the use of GMOs to alleviate Kenya's ongoing drought. Raila reiterated that GMOs are not a cure-all for Kenya's ongoing drought and food shortage, and vowed to fight them in court and on farms across the country. According to Raila, the reintroduction of GMOs violates Kenyans' rights and jeopardises national interests, prioritising foreign commercial interests. He said Kenyans deserve a clear plan for increasing access to water to improve irrigation in the unpredictable climate, improving infrastructure to facilitate market access, improving agricultural extension assistance programmes, and empowering special interest groups such as youth, women, and people with disabilities to participate in agriculture. Citizen Digital Glyphosate found in pasta – but not in organic Research conducted by the Swiss magazine K-tipp analyzed the presence of the probable carcinogen glyphosate in pasta. Of the 18 packages, 13 were from conventional farming and five from organic farming. Of the first 13, as many as 10 products showed the presence of glyphosate residues, even if the quantities are not high and do not exceed the legal limits. The pasta from organic farming – the five remaining products – did not register any trace of glyphosate or other pesticides. Spark Chronicles Did West Africa’s Ebola outbreak of 2014 have a lab origin? The Ebola outbreak of 2014 was a disaster for West Africa. Over 11,000 lives were lost amidst intense negative social and economic consequences. The 2014 outbreak of Zaire Ebola (as the species is known) is today commonly cited as a bona fide example of a natural zoonosis that began in the country of Guinea. However, the 2014 outbreak was puzzling on multiple levels. The greatest of these puzzles is that all previous Zaire Ebola virus outbreaks occurred in the Congo basin, which is thousands of miles away. Additionally, to this day and despite extensive sampling, no animal source of Zaire Ebola virus in West Africa has ever been identified. At the same time, in Sierra Leone, not far from the border with Guinea, is the town of Kenema, which hosts a US-funded virus research facility. The research focus of this lab, which is run by the US-based Viral Haemorrhagic Fever Consortium, are the viral haemorrhagic fevers, of which Ebola is one. An independent investigation by journalist Sam Husseini and virologist Dr Jonathan Latham reveals a cover-up. Although there are clear and obvious inconsistencies between the scientific evidence and the orthodox narrative of a Guinean origin, western researchers, many of them from the lab in Kenema or closely connected to it, chose to overlook these weaknesses to promote a false and misleading Guinean origin story. Independent Science News The COVID-19 pandemic: Failure to predict, failure to report Science journalist and journalism instructor Michael Balter has posted the first in a planned series of blogs that will look at the evidence on the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic and how the topic has been covered (or not) in the media. Michael Balter's Substack Government lab in Maryland plans to create a hybrid monkeypox strain that is MORE deadly than one currently spreading in US A US government laboratory in Maryland plans to make the circulating monkeypox strain more lethal in highly controversial research in mice. The team wants to equip the dominant clade - which mostly causes a rash and flu-like symptoms - with genes from another strain that causes severe disease. The latest monkeypox study is being funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a research arm of National Institutes of Health (NIH). But the modified virus poses an exceptionally high risk to the public if it accidentally leaks, according to Dr Richard Ebright, a microbiologist at Rutgers University in New Jersey. Daily Mail We hope you’ve enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible by readers’ donations. Please support our work with a one-off or regular donation. 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