09/June/20

 

CRISPR gene editing in rice varieties caused a wide range of undesirable and unintended on-target and off-target mutations, according to an important new study authored by a Chinese and Australian team of scientists and published in the Journal of Genetics and Genomics. London-based molecular geneticist Dr Michael Antoniou commented, "Given these findings, the likelihood of unpredictable changes in multiple gene functions leading to altered biochemistry in gene-edited food plants, with consequent health risks (toxicity, allergenicity) is very real." GMWatch

 

 

The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday declared it would not immediately honour a court ruling handed down last week that banned certain herbicides made by three of the world’s largest chemical companies. The move by the EPA amounts to a generous gift to BASF, Bayer and Corteva, whose dicamba herbicides were deemed by the court to have been approved by the EPA illegally. The court specifically said in its order issued last week that it wanted no delay in vacating those approvals. The court cited damage done by dicamba use in past summers to millions of acres of crops, orchards and vegetable plots across US farm country. US Right to Know