George Monbiot has attacked The Land magazine for having succumbed to “the current wave of conspiracism” in its criticism of his involvement with Mark Lynas and the rebranded ecomodernist group RePlanet, which promotes nuclear power, GMOs, and synthetic food. Monbiot took exception to an editorial in The Land titled "Rebooting Reality: Ecomodernists want to ‘reboot food’: Mike Hannis smells astroturf". In the editorial, The Land’s co-editor Mike Hannis, who is also a Senior Lecturer in Ethics, Politics and Environment at Bath Spa University, pointed out how well RePlanet’s objectives serve the interests of industry. For instance, their Reboot Food campaign explicitly aims to secure state funding for the emerging synthetic food industry. Hannis wrote, "RePlanet has all the hallmarks of a sophisticated astroturf organisation, whose real job is to advance industry interests, not least by weakening EU regulations around agrochemicals and ‘novel foods’.” RePlanet's key funder is Quadrature Climate Foundation (QCF), a hedge fund that invests in Big Oil and the arms industry, as well as other environmentally destructive industries. The irony is that Monbiot has been among the most effective analysts of the appeal of ecomodernism to billionaires like Suneil Setiya, CEO of Quadrature Capital and trustee of QCF. GMWatch
Over 450,000 hectares in villages along the Punjab, Haryana and Pakistan borders of Rajasthan are under GM Bt cotton cultivation. However, pink bollworms have been eating into the profits of cotton farmers for the past few years. This year, it has taken a more serious turn. The invasion started early into the cropping cycle this time. Farmers claimed their yields had never been this low and demanded that the government should declare pink bollworm infestation a natural disaster, in order to offer them compensation. “Pink bollworm infestation on Bt cotton has affected every village without exception. Full crop loss has been registered in certain areas,” Resham Singh, president of the Bhartiya Kisan Union said. Hans India
Amid multiple challenges to food security, some organisations are renewing calls for a second Green Revolution, echoing the introduction in the 1960s and 1970s of supposedly high-yielding varieties of wheat and rice into developing countries, along with synthetic fertilisers and pesticides. Those efforts centred on India and other Asian countries; today, advocates focus on sub-Saharan Africa, where the original Green Revolution regime never took hold. But Glenn Davis Stone writes that anyone concerned with food production should be careful what they wish for. In recent years, a wave of new analysis has spurred a critical rethinking of what Green Revolution-style farming really means for food supplies and self-sufficiency. As Stone explains in his book, The Agricultural Dilemma: How Not to Feed the World, the Green Revolution does hold lessons for food production today – but not the ones that are commonly heard. The Conversation
Neurofilament light chain (NfL) is a protein that is released into the bloodstream following nerve damage and has emerged as a reliable biomarker for various neurological disorders. In newly published research, scientists report a link between urinary glyphosate levels and NfL levels in blood serum, indicating that higher levels of glyphosate exposure may be linked to higher levels of nerve damage. Furthermore, the scientists observed a significant trend of increasing NfL concentrations with increasing glyphosate exposure. The association was more pronounced in certain subgroups, including those aged over 40, non-Hispanic whites, and those with a body mass index between 25 and 30 (overweight). This is the first research to suggest an association between glyphosate exposure and biomarkers indicative of neurological damage in US adults. Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology
The European Commission is reconsidering its proposal to renew the contentious herbicide glyphosate in a bid to win the green light from member states, according to sources familiar with the issue, with suggestions the EU executive may even present a new proposal. The EU executive submitted a draft regulation on 20 September to member states, foreseeing the renewed approval of glyphosate for the EU market beyond 15 December this year, when the current approval expires. According to diplomatic sources, the Commission is currently in the process of changing the proposal to win enough support from member states. Euractiv
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