| | 20/July/23
| | Hungary continues to stand up for GMO-free agriculture On 5 July 2023, the European Commission published a legislative proposal on the regulation of genetically modified plants produced by new genomic techniques (NGT), which would exempt many such plants from the GMO regulations (those regulations require risk assessment, traceability requirements and GMO labelling). The Hungarian government has issued a strong statement opposing this deregulation, saying, "We do not support any initiative that would allow these [new GM] products to be placed on the market in the European Union without a proper health and environmental risk assessment." The statement adds, "Our primary concern is to strengthen and maintain food supply and food safety and to protect the interests of traditional, especially organic, farmers. For this reason, guarantees must be included in the regulation to ensure that NGT products are properly labelled, monitored and excluded from organic farming. Similarly, consumer freedom of choice can only be guaranteed if compulsory labelling is maintained, which is why we must not allow products created using new genetic engineering techniques to be placed on the market without any prior testing and authorisation." Hungarian government via GMWatch The Bill Gates Problem: Reckoning with the Myth of the Good Billionaire – new book Piercing the blinding halo that has for too long shielded the world’s most powerful (and most secretive) charitable organisation from public scrutiny, Tim Schwab's new book The Bill Gates Problem shows how Gates’s billions have purchased a stunning level of control over public policy, private markets, scientific research, and the news media. Whether he is pushing new educational standards in America, health reforms in India, global vaccine policy during the pandemic, or Western industrialised agriculture throughout Africa, Gates’s heady social experimentation has shown itself to be not only undemocratic, but also ineffective. In many places, Bill Gates is hurting the very people he intends to help. No less than dark-money campaign contributions or big-business political lobbying, Bill Gates’s philanthropic empire needs to be seen as a problem of money in politics. It is a dangerous model of unconstrained power that threatens democracy and demands our attention. Macmillan Publishers "Serious and systemic issues" in Australia: CEO and board chair resign amid scathing review of pesticides regulator The board chair and CEO of Australia’s agricultural and veterinary chemical regulator have resigned, as an independent review found “serious and systemic issues” within the organisation. The federal minister for agriculture, Murray Watt, said the government would take “firm action” to ensure the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority’s integrity after the review’s findings. Law firm Clayton Utz carried out the review at Watt’s request after allegations were raised at Senate estimates that a senior member of staff at the APVMA had urinated on other staff members at a Christmas function in 2021. A separate report on that incident was completed in February 2023 and the matter was referred to the Australian federal police. The Guardian 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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