At the end of September the UK Minister of State for Food Security and Rural Affairs Daniel Zeichner announced that the new Labour government will proceed with issuing the secondary legislation that will implement the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act. As it stands, the Act would remove a subclass of GMOs, dubbed "precision bred", from meaningful regulatory oversight in England, in effect aligning the country with weak US standards. New GMOs developed using techniques such as gene editing would no longer be subjected to risk assessment for health and the environment, traceability requirements, or labelling. However, the upcoming secondary legislation is a chance to fill the legal gaps and maintain these important protections. Now the molecular geneticist and toxicologist Prof Michael Antoniou and GMWatch co-director Claire Robinson have written a letter to Minister Zeichner, setting out the measures that must be included in the secondary legislation to ensure that new GMOs are regulated in a science-based and responsible manner. GMWatch
More than 160 representatives from a thriving international Non-GMO industry and leading European associations from 23 countries and four continents met on 7-8 October 2024 at the International Non-GMO Summit 2024 in Frankfurt. Operators across the full Non-GMO value chain are united in battling the current challenges posed by the planned deregulation of new genomic techniques, as proposed by the EU Commission. The participants at the summit gave a clear message for freedom of choice and transparency. On behalf of the organisers, Alexander Hissting, managing director of VLOG, said: “Non-GMO markets are economically very successful and are thriving with strong support from consumers. We are ready and willing to face current political and market challenges.” The organisers are convinced that NGTs should be strictly regulated, just like all other GMOs. Hissting’s clear message was “The Non-GMO sector is here to stay!” GMWatch
Bayer shares fell after Washington state’s top court said it will review a case alleging that toxic chemicals from the German company’s Monsanto unit caused brain injuries to three teachers. The court said it accepted the case for review in a filing on its website, while also denying an application for a speedy review. Bayer shares fell more than 7% in Frankfurt on Wednesday morning, the most intraday since March 5. The stock is down almost 20% this year. The case was the first of more than half a dozen verdicts with combined damages of more than $1.5 billion to reach the appeals court over alleged PCB exposure at the Sky Valley Education Center. BNN Bloomberg
More than 20 years after the Human Genome Project was completed, the promise of personal genetics hasn’t panned out for the average person. “Genetics was supposed to be this thing that unlocked all this information and cured disease. It ended up being way more complicated than that,” says Christina Farr, a health tech investor and former journalist who covered the genetic testing company 23andMe for many years. In August, 23andMe shuttered its in-house drug discovery unit and now the company is in trouble, as home DNA testing has lost its lustre. Valued at $6 billion when it went public in 2021, 23andMe’s stock has plummeted and it has never made a profit in the 18 years since it was founded. Wired
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