The approval of legislation relaxing the EU’s rules on new GMOs will have to wait until the next legislative mandate, Belgian Agriculture Minister David Clarinval confirmed after the Agriculture and Fisheries Council (AGRIFISH) on 26 March. “We do not have enough time left to finalise negotiations with the European Parliament,” said Clarinval in a press conference after the AGRIFISH meeting. He stressed, however, that the Belgian Presidency would continue to work towards reaching a common position among EU countries during the remainder of its mandate. Euractiv

 

 

A new public relations and crisis communications study tracked 10 years of data and used big data analytic tools to capture shifts in how Bayer/Monsanto and the public discussed a complex legal situation regarding the widely used Roundup herbicide — and how those dynamics related to stock price. The bottom line? When the company took an aggressive stance, its stock price dropped. "We found that when the company took an aggressive stance, this was often associated with the public taking an aggressive stance," said Jaekuk Lee, co-author of a paper on the work and a PhD student at North Carolina State University. "And when the public took an aggressive stance, the company's stock price declined significantly. In other words, aggressive attitudes on both sides were strongly correlated with subsequent declines in the company's stock price." Alice Cheng, co-author of the paper, said, "While the companies can't control the public, they can control their own communications positions — which suggests being accommodating would be in the company's best interest." Phys.org

 

 

Ghana has approved the commercialisation of 14 GMOs - 13 of them belonging to Bayer/Monsanto and one to Syngenta. A mix of maize and soybean varieties, half of them are engineered to be sprayed with toxic pesticides. GRAIN on X @GRAIN_org

 

 

East St Louis is alleging the old Monsanto plant in Sauget polluted its town, and it’s seeking what could potentially be billions of dollars in fines. The city is suing Monsanto Company, Solutia, Inc. and Pharmacia LLC in federal court, accusing the companies of polluting its land with chemicals known as polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, that are toxic and dangerous to people and the environment. Solutia and Pharmacia are successors to the original Monsanto organisation. Solutia now operates Monsanto’s chemical products business, and Pharmacia operates its pharmaceuticals business. The lawsuit is scheduled for jury trial next year. AOL.com

 

We hope you’ve enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible by readers’ donations. Please support our work with a one-off or regular donation. Thank you!