Eight in 10 people think that genetically modified foods on sale in British shops should be labelled as such – in a blow to UK Government plans. The findings of a new poll come as Rishi Sunak’s government looks to deregulate certain types of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and allow firms to sell them without any labelling or other identifying features. Although the farming of such GMOs will only be legal in England, the Scottish government will be powerless to stop them from being marketed north of the Border. The UK government has said that "Precision Bred Organisms" (PBOs), a subclass of GMOs, will not need to be labelled as they are “indistinguishable from ­traditionally bred counterparts”. However, polling from YouGov for the campaign group Beyond GM has found that a significant majority of people do not want PBOs to be sold unlabelled – with a plurality not wanting them in their food at all. [GMW: Please note that contrary to what this article says, gene editing technology has never been "banned" under EU law. But it is regulated – that means safety assessments, traceability requirements and labelling apply.] The National

 

 

British citizens are told that everywhere else in the world is deregulating gene editing technologies and if we don’t do it we will be left behind – but this is not true. Of the 195 countries across the world, just 16 have drawn up regulations to treat gene editing differently to GMOs. All other countries regulate gene-edited organisms as GMOs and the regulations that exist in other countries are often more nuanced and comprehensive than the free-for-all which the UK is currently considering. Unsurprisingly, it is the top GMO producer and exporter countries such as the USA, Canada, Brazil and Argentina which are leading the drive to reduce the regulation on gene-edited crops. Eight of the 16 countries that have passed laws exempting some gene-edited crops from existing GMO legislation are based in the Americas: USA, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Honduras and Paraguay. Beyond GM

 

 

A new report, "Green Revolution for Canada", promotes speculative, unproven and costly technologies like new genetic modifications of crops and the soil microbiome. Human ecologist and author Phil Loring says we must abandon the technological optimism and relentless pursuit of productivity increases that got us where we are today: A world that produces much food but also produces much hunger, poverty, and environmental degradation. Scholars are increasingly arguing that we need to move away from a narrow focus on production and yield, and instead focus on dismantling the deeply oppressive systems of economic and ecological enclosure and the take-and-make-waste mindset that presently comprise our approaches to food. Medium.com

 

 

Together with 240,000 people who signed a petition, a group of screaming vegetables said NO TO PATENTS ON SEEDS in front of the German Ministry of Justice. They are calling on German justice minister Marco Buschmann to take action on a national and international level against patents on plants and animals that violate European patent law. @NoPatentsOnSeed on Twitter

 

 

GMO Free USA has made a great graphic for sharing on social media that takes apart Bill Gates' nonsensical claims on GMO. As a reminder, Gates believes that every piece of bread he's ever eaten has been GMO! GMO Free USA

 

 

Boris Johnson, who in his very first speech as Prime Minister vowed to liberate GMOs, had a butler smuggle £27,000 of organic food into Downing Street. Johnson followed in a fine tradition of GMO promoting leaders — e.g. the Clintons, Obama, George W. Bush, Tony Blair, David Cameron and Mitt Romney — keen to feed GMOs to their citizens while quietly ordering up organic at home. @GMWatch on Twitter

 

 

In cancer gene therapy, ancestry differences mean the CRISPR gene editing tool doesn’t always edit some genomes as intended, particularly in people of African descent, whose genomes are most likely to differ from those used to steer CRISPR to a specific gene. A new analysis finds that failing to account for ancestry slightly skewed a massive sweep for cancer genes, causing it to miss genes important as drug targets in those of recent African descent. Science

 

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