In 2017 the African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) lodged legal proceedings with the High Court of South Africa to review and overturn the decisions approving Monsanto/Bayer’s GM drought-tolerant (DT) maize variety MON 86470 for commercial cultivation in South Africa. The ACB has consistently argued that there is insufficient data to demonstrate the claimed drought tolerant benefit, based on either yield or agronomic performance advantage. After five years of protracted legal proceedings, dates for the court hearing have finally been set for 7 and 8 February in the High Court in Pretoria. The court case follows many years of campaigning and advocacy work by the ACB, other organisations, and members of the public, fiercely challenging Monsanto’s unproven claimed benefits of drought tolerance, going back to 2007. GMWatch

 

 

Over 90 Tamil Nadu villages have passed a resolution against GM mustard. They want it kept off their farms and plates. In a letter submitted to the state government's chief minister, the villages urged the state government to write to Bhupender Yadav, Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), asking him to intervene and stop the planting of GM mustard. MoEFCC, on October 18, 2022, approved the environmental release of GM mustard, named DMH-11, as a precursor to the approval for commercial cultivation of the country’s first GM food crop. India has so far approved only one GM crop, Bt cotton, for commercial cultivation. Earlier, a group of civil society organisations in the state had also sent a petition with more than 1,000 signatures asking the chief minister to stop “this toxic and unsafe GM mustard". DownToEarth

 

 

In England, with Tory sleaze, mass strikes and the return of Liz Truss hogging headlines, a vital piece of legislation is flying under the radar – and receiving far less scrutiny than it should. The third reading of the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Bill in the House of Lords last week lasted all of 10 minutes. Half of that time was spent by peers congratulating themselves and each other on their efforts to improve the controversial legislation. In reality, no substantive amendments were made. The bill, which removes regulatory control from genetically modified “precision bred organisms” (PBOs) – in other words, from gene-edited crops and foods, is now largely in its final form. The expectation is that this inadequate, flawed, industry-led, scientifically, legally, economically and ethically dodgy bill will return to the House of Commons and be swiftly shunted into law before the spring. Reaction

 

 

Over 80% of crops require insect pollination, but growers can no longer rely on the dwindling wild bee population. Agtech startups are addressing this by working on artificial pollination methods, such as robo-bees combined with artificial intelligence. The startups have secured $8M in seed funding. Blogger Vixen Valentino gives her view of the investment on Twitter. V. Valentino on Twitter @vixenvalentino

 

 

A new study has found that gardeners who use pesticides tend to have fewer garden birds. There were 25% fewer sparrows in gardens where glyphosate was used and 40% fewer when metaldehyde slug pellets were used. Author Prof Dave Goulson of the University of Sussex said: “The UK has 22 million gardens, which collectively could be a fantastic refuge for wildlife, but not if they are overly tidy and sprayed with poisons. We just don’t need pesticides in our gardens. Many towns around the world are now pesticide free. We should simply ban the use of these poisons in urban areas, following the example of France.” Science of the Total Environment and The Guardian

 

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