07/May/20

 

The only people that want GMOs in Europe are the agribusiness lobby and the Trump administration - EU citizens and farmers have rejected them time and time again. But according to media reports, the Commission is still in negotiation with the US, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, and may offer to accelerate authorisations of GMOs. 74 NGOs have called on the Commission to drop GMOs from the US trade talks. FoE Europe

 

 

The US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments last week over whether the weedkiller dicamba was unlawfully approved for sale, and whether the Court should order a ban on spraying the herbicide in the United States this growing season. The petition for review was filed by the National Family Farm Coalition, the Center for Food Safety, the Center for Biological Diversity, and the Pesticide Action Network in January, calling for a review of the herbicide’s approval. While dicamba is made by the Bayer subsidiary Monsanto and BASF, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is the defendant named in the lawsuit. AboutLawsuits.com

 

 

In 2015, the government of Ethiopia opened up the country to GMOs by loosening the safeguards built into the 2009 biosafety law that were meant to protect against the risks posed by GMOs, and in 2018 approved commercial cultivation of Bt-cotton. Despite this, there has been limited public debate or media coverage on this issue. Yet this decision breaks with decades of public policy in Ethiopia and can have major implications for Africa as a whole. Addis Standard