Environmentalists, agricultural experts and social activists have hit out at the move of stopping current and former officials of the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) from expressing any opinion or writing any article about the approval of environmental release of genetically modified (GM) mustard DMH-11. The activists said the “gag order” was a move to stop reality from reaching the people. They alleged that the authorities were trying to dub the “harsh reality” about GM crops on human health and the environment “myths”. Earlier, Department of Agriculture Research and Education (part of India's Ministry of Agriculture) secretary and ICAR director-general Himanshu Pathak had issued a press release on various issues pertaining to GM mustard approval, including risk assessment of the product. Pathak also issued orders against presenting opinions or writing articles different from the stated documentation and decisions made by regulators under the Environment Protection Act (EPA) on the subject by current or former officials. Agriculture policy expert Devinder Sharma said silencing scientific voices against the risky and unwanted GM crops was indicative that there was something to hide. He said, "Every claim that the ICAR makes about GM mustard can be challenged. Allowing the propagation of junked GM mustard variety is actually aimed at opening the floodgates for risky and harmful GM foods in the country. The US is already pushing for the entry of GM rice and apples into India. We seem to be under tremendous US pressure to embrace GM crops." [GMW: Pathak's press release is here.] The Times of India

 

 

Scientists have three main theories for the persistent decline in the numbers of monarch butterflies: * loss of their food supply to the herbicide glyphosate * hazards along their four-generation-long migration from the Midwest and Canada to the mountains of Mexico, or * effects of climate change. Zipkin’s team collected data covering 30 years of monarch migrations and found an initial decline that correlated with the planting of Roundup Ready crops in Midwestern fields in the 1990s. The crops were genetically engineered to survive the glyphosate-based herbicide Roundup. The glyphosate killed the milkweed plants, which monarch caterpillars depend upon as their sole food source. “We see the steepest time of the decline in this early part (in the 1990s) when this Roundup Ready use was really ramping up,” Zipkin said. But when glyphosate use plateaued early in this century, monarch numbers continued to decline, suggesting another factor had come into play. “We found strong support for the climate-change hypothesis,” she said, “from about 2004 to almost the present time". Forbes

 

 

MIT Technology Review has published its list of the worst technologies of 2022. The list includes the gene-edited pig heart given to a transplant patient which was infected with a pig virus. We wrote about it here. MIT Technology Review and @GMWatch on Twitter

 

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. Thank you!