02/December/19

 

Ross Wild is the first Australian farmer to launch proceedings against Bayer/Monsanto alleging his cancer was caused by RoundUp weedkiller. His case is being heard in the Victorian Supreme Court. His lawyer, Tony Carbone, is also representing Melbourne gardener Michael Ogalirolo, who alleges he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2011 after using Roundup three times a week for 18 years. Reuters this month reported that 42,700 plaintiffs claiming to have been exposed to Bayer/Monsanto’s glyphosate-based products had sued the company in the US as of October 11. The Age

 

 

An in-depth article has been published on a story that GMWatch covered in October – the South African government's rejection of Monsanto's request for cultivation of its allegedly drought-tolerant MON87460 x MON89034 x NK603 maize seed. The official report rejecting the maize said it showed no yield improvement in water-limited conditions over conventional varieties. Slow Food

 

 

The journal JAMA has published an editorial on the recent announcement by the Trump administration of plans to proceed with a rule stipulating that all underlying data from studies that underpin public health regulations from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must be made publicly available so that those data can be independently validated. [GMWatch notes that this move will weaken rules protecting human health from pollution or the use of toxic chemicals: see this article.] JAMA's editorial notes, "Virtually every time JAMA publishes an article on the effects of pollution or climate change on health, the journal immediately receives demands from critics to retract the article for various reasons." [GMWatch notes that this has also become a knee-jerk reaction on the part of pro-GMO lobbyists to many published studies that point to risks and harms from GM crops and foods.] JAMA