In Kenya the Court of Appeal has issued orders stopping the government from permitting GMO imports or doing anything to implement its lifting of Kenya's GMO ban. The Kenyan Peasants League had appealed the decision to lift the ban. TeleSur

 

 

A trial at the University of Nottingham on dairy cattle suggests removing soy completely from their diet can actually increase milk production. The soy (most of which is GM) was replaced in the trial by supplementing with amino acids. Nigel Armstrong, dairy herd manager at the University, said, "We've seen the yield go up, haven't seen anything negative on fertility, it's all been positive... I wish I'd done it sooner, to be honest." BBC Sounds

 

 

While synthetic biology experiments have provided valuable learning experiences, Akos Nyerges, a synthetic-genomics researcher in George Church’s lab at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, says this research has “laid bare how much we still don’t understand about the fundamental language of the genome. Every genome-rewriting program so far has grappled with substantial and unexpected challenges, and the era of made-to-order genomes remains out of reach. When it comes to heavily modified genomes, we underestimated how complex biology is.” Nature

 

 

MASIPAG (Farmer-Scientist Partnership for Development), a Philippines-based network of more than 500 farmer organisations, non-government organisations, and scientists working for farmer empowerment through farmer-led agroecology, have issued a statement saying they "stand in solidarity with the peoples of Aotearoa New Zealand who are resisting the corporate-driven push to deregulate genetically modified organisms (GMOs), including gene-edited crops". MASIPAG writes, "Our struggle for food sovereignty, farmers’ rights, and biodiversity protection is deeply connected to yours. We join you in opposing the Gene Technology Bill, which threatens to dismantle essential biosafety protections, override democratic decision-making, and erode the rights of farmers, consumers, and Indigenous communities." MASIPAG

 

 

German chemical giant Bayer is improperly using a court order to hide details of a “propaganda” campaign targeting Missouri lawmakers and potential jurors, an emergency motion to lift the confidentiality cloak claims. In a case pending in Cole County Circuit Court, attorney Matt Clement is arguing that 46 “public relations” documents designated as confidential by Bayer’s attorneys contain no proprietary information. A hearing before a special master is scheduled for March 12. Instead, Clement wrote in the motion filed last week, the records — included among 20,000 delivered under discovery — detail the methods Bayer has used to influence opinion, including radio, television and print ads. “Cole County has been especially inundated with Monsanto’s propaganda,” Clement wrote in the motion seeking to unseal the records. Missouri Independent

 

 

Butterfly populations in the US are plummeting, with some of the rarest facing near-total collapse, a new study has found. Researchers say studies show pesticide exposure, particularly neonicotinoids, play a particularly lethal role. People are encouraged to plant native milkweed to help monarch caterpillars, but a study in the Central Valley of California found every single collected sample was contaminated with pesticides — even when landowners said they didn't use them, suggesting drift or plants were treated prior to purchase. New York Times

 

 

In 2018, Louis Robert, an agronomist in Québec, was fired after releasing controversial research about the limited effectiveness of neonicotinoid pesticides. After a year of asking his superiors at the Ministry of Agriculture to release the report, Robert sent the unpublished research to Radio-Canada. The upshot of the study: That neonicotinoid seed treatments produced no significant difference in crop yields for corn and soybeans. Shortly after he released the report to the press, while he was in a field giving a demonstration to farmers, Robert’s phone rang. It was his boss’s secretary, insisting that he return to the office immediately. “As soon as I got to the office, I was invited to a conference room, and my boss was there, and on the video was his boss in Québec City, and they handed me a letter signed by my ministry,” Robert said. “I was suspended from the department.” The study is here. US Right to Know

 

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