GM Bt cotton crops in the northern cotton zone of Haryana, Rajasthan and Punjab have been destroyed by the pink bollworm pest this year. With over 90 per cent of the yield damaged in some areas, farmers are struggling to salvage their remaining produce. Those who have managed to pick it now face uncertainty about whether their produce will find a price in the market even below the minimum support price. Meanwhile, the little cotton that is arriving on the market cannot be bought as the quality is too poor, according to traders. According to government reports, pink bollworm has attacked the entire cotton belt in the north. About 65 per cent of cotton production in Haryana and Punjab has been severely damaged, while Rajasthan has faced losses up to 90 per cent. DownToEarth

 

 

The documentary "Into the Weeds" reveals evidence that Bayer/Monsanto knew about the toxicity of its product Roundup. Robert F. Kennedy Jr comments on the documentary and the issues it raises: "For 40-plus years, Monsanto has rigged the science by financing ghostwritten articles and peer-reviewed studies downplaying Roundup's adverse effects on health. But [Roundup-exposed cancer sufferer] Lee Johnson would never have been able to take this giant multinational corporation to court if a bill currently being considered by Congress had been the law of the land. The innocuously named Agricultural Labeling Uniformity Act (HR 4288) purports to be a bill 'to ensure uniformity of labeling standards for pesticides that are backed by sound science and approved by the EPA'. In reality, it is a blatant industry strong-arm move to prevent state and local efforts to regulate toxic pesticides — and to overturn decades of Supreme Court precedent in the process. It's also a bald-faced attempt to preempt a federal court-ordered FDA reassessment of glyphosate, mandated last year when the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals found that the agency failed to adequately consider the potential cancer-causing effects of the chemical." [GMW: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. may be a controversial figure for some, but this article is spot on.] Newsweek

 

 

Regenerative farmer Chris Smaje is author of the book Saying No to a Farm-Free Future, a superb, authoritative, and data-backed response to George Monbiot's book Regenesis, which promotes synthetic bioreactor-generated food as a silver bullet for eliminating livestock-related farming – a strategy that Monbiot believes will spare land and enable rewilding. Smaje's beautifully written book takes apart key arguments that Monbiot makes in Regenesis, not least his failure to take proper account of synthetic food’s requirement for massive additional electricity generation. Monbiot recently wrote an article attacking Smaje, titled, "The cruel fantasies of well-fed people", which completely failed to address the elephant in the room – the energy- and resource-hunger of synthetic food production. Now Smaje has replied to Monbiot in a blog post characterised by his usual impeccable logic combined with wisdom and compassion. Incidentally, Saying No to a Farm-Free Future is a great read and an inspiring antidote to the chilling ecomodernism and technophilia espoused by the likes of pro-GMO lobbyist Mark Lynas and (sadly, in some respects) Monbiot. GMWatch comment on blog post published on Resilience

 

 

Calls for Canada's federal government to overhaul its pesticide laws and regulatory agencies are being made this week in the wake of revelations that Canada's Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) failed to warn Canadians about the health dangers of a pesticide used on sports fields, golf courses and vegetable farms. The pesticide — dimethyl tetrachloroterephthalate, or DCPA — can cause "serious, permanent and irreversible" damage to fetuses without the mother showing any symptoms, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). It is the second time this year the agency has come under fire for failing to warn Canadians about a pesticide on the cusp of being banned and measures taken to limit its use. This spring, an investigation found the PMRA ignored warnings from its own scientists about the toxic pesticide chlorpyrifos. Canada's National Observer

 

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