| Slovakia against loosening GMO rules, cites public concerns Slovakia will vote against the European Commission’s proposal to loosen EU GMO rules by exempting plants produced using new genomic techniques from the GMO directive, Slovakia’s Agriculture Ministry announced. “The Slovak Republic has long held an unchanging position on GMOs. Considering the fact that the Slovak public rejects GMO food and feed, Slovakia will support products without the use of GMOs,” the country’s agriculture ministry said. Euractiv Deregulation of new genomic techniques – what is at risk? The European Non-GMO Industry Association ENGA has laid out the risks of the worst case GMO deregulation scenario. It says the chief risk is that if the European Commission proposes to abolish GMO traceability and labelling, then invisible, untraceable new GMOs will be unleashed on European markets, in fields, and in shoppers’ supermarket trolleys. ENGA Mexico’s government refuses to bow to US sanction threats, ups ante in fight over GM corn Washington is threatening to expand its sanctions regime to Mexico, its second largest trade partner, for wanting to protect its own native crop diversity as well as its citizens’ rapidly worsening health. Mexico is trying to ban the consumption of GMO crops. On December 31, 2020 Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (aka AMLO) issued a decree calling for all imports of GMO crops, including corn, as well as the “probably” carcinogenic weedkiller glyphosate, to be phased out by the end of January 2024. Crucially, the decree enjoyed the support of Mexico’s Supreme Court. While Mexico has since then somewhat softened the decree, at the beginning of this month, Washington convened a trade dispute panel, arguing that the new decree still violates the US-Mexico Canada free trade agreement and is based on bad science. But if the US and Canada’s escalation of their trade dispute with Mexico was meant to break the Mexican government’s resolve, it appears to have had the opposite effect. Instead of bowing to the threats of trade sanctions, Mexico’s government has upped the ante. On Saturday, it imposed a 50% tariff on white corn imports with the apparent aim of boosting national production and preventing the entry of GM corn. Naked Capitalism Saving pollinators from neonics One of every three bites of food we eat comes from a crop pollinated by bees. This bee-powered nourishment includes apples, blueberries, tomatoes, bananas, avocados, cashews, and almonds–a harvest of more than 130 fruits, vegetables, and nuts. Yet, all this is imperilled by a severe decline of bees and other pollinators worldwide. A shocking new study just found that mass pollinator loss has already caused half a million early human deaths a year by drastically reducing the global supply of fruits, vegetables, and nuts. Between April 2018 to April 2019, the managed bee population in the US decreased by a stunning 40.7%, which experts call "unsustainable". An overwhelming number of scientific studies link these bee declines to pesticides, especially a group of systemic insecticides called neonicotinoids. These bee-harmful pesticides have many long-term detrimental effects and pose an increased risk to fragile ecosystems. Common Dreams Beijing ordered destruction of early coronavirus samples, secret memo shows Beijing authorities ordered an early crackdown on information about the coronavirus pandemic, forbidding the sharing of viral samples outside of government sanctioned labs in the name of “biosafety,” a secret order obtained by US Right to Know shows. The destruction of early samples slowed global response to the pandemic, and also reportedly constrained the US intelligence community’s ability to assess the pandemic’s origin. The order is dated January 3, 2020, two days after the world was made aware of the novel coronavirus. Some details about the order have been reported previously but USRTK is publishing the entire document for the first time. US Right to Know 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! __________________________________________________________ Website: http://www.gmwatch.org
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