Gene editing is cheap, easy, prone to unintended effects, poorly regulated, and can permanently alter nature’s gene pool – in fact, it's a recipe for disaster. A short (6 minutes) and simple new video explains what's at risk. Institute for Responsible Technology

 

 

The UK Government has been urged to ditch its plans to weaken regulation over genetically modified food by the Scottish Greens, who say the move poses a threat to devolution and public health. The warning comes as MPs prepare to debate the controversial Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Bill, which would see the expansion of gene-edited crops and livestock. The Scottish Government has opposed measures contained within the bill but concerns have been raised that the legislation will impact Scotland by allowing gene-edited products to enter the country via the Internal Market Act – which bars any UK nation from stopping goods produced in another from being sold within their borders. Commenting, Scottish Greens environment spokesperson Mark Ruskell described the bill as “reckless” and raised concerns over the UK Government’s support for it. He added: “It would promote untested, controversial and unlabelled gene-edited crops while straying from the EU standards that many have come to expect. The National

 

 

The Indian central government is finally satisfied that the use of glyphosate, a widely used herbicide, involves health hazards for human beings and animals. However, use will only be restricted, not banned. The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare issued a notification, "Restriction on use of Glyphosate Order, 2022", dated October 21, 2022. This decision was taken after considering the report of an expert committee. The new restriction on the use of glyphosate is a welcome step forward, according to an article for the environmental publication Down to Earth. However, the article regrets that the central government has shied away from banning it completely despite a long-pending demand from civil society and activists working in India. The notification mentions no person shall use glyphosate except pest control operators. But it is not clear who those pest control operators are and how the rule will be implemented. Down to Earth

 

 

The Indonesian Farmers Union (SPI) has asked President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) to cancel the plan to open imports of genetically modified seeds. According to SPI, the policy harms farmers and threatens their health. Head of the Polhukam Department SPI Angga Hermanda said that by opening the import of GMO soybean seeds, the government did not solve the root problem of Indonesia's dependence on imported soybeans. "In fact, that is not the solution. The root of the problem is not seeds because our farmers are also able to produce soybeans with better productivity than GMOs," he said. CNBC Indonesia

 

 

The Wuhan lab at the centre of suspicions about the pandemic’s onset was far more troubled than known, documents unearthed by a US Senate team reveal. Vanity Fair and ProPublica downloaded more than 500 documents from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) website, including party branch dispatches from 2017 to the present. They found that WIV dispatches signalled that the institute faced an acute safety emergency in November 2019; that officials at the highest levels of the Chinese government weighed in; and that urgent action was taken in an effort to address ongoing safety issues. The documents do not make clear who was responsible for the crisis, which laboratory it affected specifically, or what the exact nature of the biosafety emergency was. ProPublica

 

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