The Ontario Superior Court of Justice has certified a national class action lawsuit against Monsanto and Bayer centring on allegations that Roundup products cause non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma (NHL). The lawsuit was commenced in December 2019. In certifying the lawsuit as a class action, Justice Duncan Grace noted in his reasons that a class proceeding would provide "easier access to justice" and that "it is bound to be more economical than the pursuit of multiple individual claims". The Class is represented by Jeffrey DeBlock, an NHL-survivor. Mr DeBlock was diagnosed with NHL when he was seventeen years old, after using Roundup as part of his summer job on a local farm. Yahoo! Finance

 

 

A groundbreaking legal action today calls on the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to immediately suspend and cancel the dangerous herbicide glyphosate, the main ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup. Glyphosate's registration is illegal, says the petition filed by Center for Food Safety on behalf of itself, Beyond Pesticides, and four farmworker advocacy groups. Last year, in a lawsuit by the same nonprofits, a federal court of appeals struck down EPA's human health assessment because the agency wrongfully dismissed glyphosate's cancer risk. Today's petition, calling for the cancellation and suspension of glyphosate's registration, runs over 70 pages and includes more than 200 scientific citations. "This petition is a blueprint for the Biden administration to do what the law and science require and finally cancel glyphosate's registration," said Pegga Mosavi, an attorney at the Center for Food Safety and counsel for the petitioners. Center for Food Safety

 

 

In a major turnaround, the American Chestnut Foundation (TACF) has announced it is discontinuing its development of the genetically engineered (GE, GM, or genetically modified) American chestnut tree called “Darling 58”. TACF is a collaborative partner with the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF) which, on January 17, 2020, submitted a still-pending request to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for approval to release of this GM tree into the wild. Release of this GM forest tree in the US would pose a direct threat to the future of endangered American chestnut in Canada. “The university now has a responsibility to withdraw its request for approval. This genetically engineered tree has been found to be useless a full three years after developers asked the US government to approve its release,” said Lucy Sharratt, Coordinator of the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network (CBAN), “The developers rushed this genetically engineered tree forward based on assumptions and hope rather than science and testing.” GMWatch

 

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