On June 7, 2023, the European Commission might propose a modification of the regulatory framework for GMOs. Its goal is to have GMO obtained by "directed mutagenesis and cisgenesis" excluded from the requirements of labelling and risk assessment – requirements that would then apply only to transgenic GMOs. But, according to the European Food Safety Authority, the very notion of "transgenic" could also be modified. If EFSA and the Commission get their way, the number of GMOs that qualify as transgenic and which would remain subject to the current risk assessment and labelling requirements would be reduced. And the number of GMOs labelled as cisgenic that the Commission wants to exempt from risk assessment and labelling would increase. Inf'OGM

 

 

After years of resistance from advocacy groups as well as regulatory and pandemic-related delays, the first genetically engineered salmon made its official debut in the American food supply last June. But the AquAdvantage Salmon hasn’t made much of a splash. In fact, it’s barely on the market, said Jaydee Hanson, policy director at the Center for Food Safety (CFS). More than 80 US companies with a combined 18,000 locations have said they will not carry the fish. On that list are major institutional food service companies Aramark, Compass, and Sodexo; they’re joined by nearly every major grocery chain, including Walmart, Costco, Kroger, Giant Eagle Whole Foods, and Trader Joe’s. Dr Michael Hansen, a senior scientist at Consumer Reports, said, “We’re seeing no sales at grocery stores." He also said that the research that the US FDA reviewed to evaluate safety was far from adequate – he called it “sloppy science and deficient data”. Civil Eats

 

 

Professor Colin Butler and Delia Randolph, the authors of two United Nations reports into the origins of the pandemic, say they believe a laboratory leak was the most likely cause of Covid-19. They accuse top British and American scientists of helping China deliberately to suppress debate on the issue, in an "Orwellian" cover-up. They add that irrespective of the origin of the pandemic, the self-regulation of "gain of function" research, such as that carried out at the Wuhan Institute of Virology on coronaviruses, has been "a dismal failure". Daily Mail

 

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