20/May/20

 

The European Commission today launched two packages of policies as part of the European Green Deal - the Farm to Fork and Biodiversity Strategies. This is the first time the Commission has presented a coherent set of policies to tackle the food, farming and ecological crises. They contain a number of positive measures, but stop short of stimulating the systemic change needed, according to Friends of the Earth Europe. The Farm to Fork Strategy is weak on pesticide reduction targets and presents a new generation of GMOs as an option to “improve sustainability along the food supply chain“, following lobbying from the biotech industry. GMWatch

 

 

A fungus that lives in malaria-carrying mosquitoes could boost global efforts to control the disease, which kills about half a million people — mostly children — every year. Scientists have discovered a microbe, a fungus they have named Microsporidia MB, in Anopheles arabiensis mosquitoes around the shores of Lake Victoria in Kenya. The fungus is capable of blocking malaria transmission from mosquitoes to people. The fungus is naturally found at low levels in malaria mosquitoes in Kenya, but the researchers believe there may be ways to increase the number of mosquitoes carrying it, thereby blocking their capacity to transmit malaria. [GMW: We're not claiming this approach is risk free – it must be risk assessed like any other ecosystem intervention. It does at first glance, however, seem less risky than the usual GM mosquito/gene drive approaches.] SciDev.net