A field trial of GM CRISPR gene-edited rice in Pavia, Italy has reportedly been destroyed by unknown activists. The researchers who developed the rice issued a press release about the incident, calling the activists "ecoterrorists". Given the rush to run this GMO field trial against the wishes of many in Italy, the action hardly seems surprising. Peasant farmers complained of no public discussion and no serious risk assessment. @GMWatch on Twitter/X

 

 

The adoption of GM Tela maize has sparked controversy among anti-GMO groups in Nigeria. The Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) and other organisations condemned the GMO adoption, expressing concerns over the lack of a risk assessment before the release of the maize. HOMEF’s executive director, Nnimmo Bassey, criticised the government’s move, citing potential health risks and environmental impacts associated with GMOs. He called for independent long-term assessments before approving any GM crop. Naija247 News

 

 

Synthetic biology ("precision fermentation") firms, like Ginkgo Bioworks, Amyris, LS9 and Solazyme, sucked in billions of investor money with talk of engineering bacteria to produce biofuels, plastics, foods, textiles, and more. But three have now gone to the wall and Ginkgo is in retreat. Ginkgo Bioworks laid off 158 employees recently and more layoffs are to come. An article for MIT Technology Review says, "To skeptics... Ginkgo is a company with modest scientific achievements and little revenue, and its greatest talents lie in winning glowing press coverage and raising money." @GMWatch on Twitter/X

 

 

Millions of mosquitoes are being released from helicopters in Hawaii in a last-ditch attempt to save rare birds slipping into extinction. The archipelago’s endemic, brightly coloured honeycreeper birds are dying of malaria carried by mosquitoes first introduced by European and American ships in the 1800s. Having evolved with no immunity to the disease, the birds can die after just a single bite. Thirty-three species of honeycreeper have become extinct and many of the 17 that remain are endangered, with concerns some could be extinct within a year if no action is taken. Now conservationists are trying to save them with an unusual strategy: releasing more mosquitoes. Every week a helicopter drops 250,000 male mosquitoes with a naturally occurring bacterium, Wolbachia, which acts as birth control, onto the islands of the archipelago. [GMW: This is a non-GMO approach, though scientists have told us that as with all novel biocontrol interventions in ecological systems, risks still need to be assessed and effects monitored.] The Guardian

 

 

For a new review, scientists conducted a horizon scanning of potential environmental applications in four groups of organisms produced by genetic modification, including the use of new genomic techniques: terrestrial animals (excluding insects and applications with gene drives), fish, algae and microorganisms. In all four groups, the researchers identified a broad range of potential applications in stages of basic as well as advanced research, and a limited number of applications which are on, or ready to be placed on, the market. The study concludes, "From a risk assessor’s perspective, these potential applications entail a multitude of possible pathways to harm. The current limited level of experience and limited amount of available scientific information could constitute a significant challenge in the near future, for which risk assessors and competent authorities urgently need to prepare." Frontiers in Genome Editing

 

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