12/June/20

 

On May 1, the company Oxitec received an experimental use permit from the US Environmental Protection Agency to release millions of Oxitec's GM mosquitoes every week over the next two years in Florida and Texas in the hope that they will cause the collapse of a wild population. Now a group of vector biologists, geneticists, policy experts, and bioethicists have written an article expressing their concern that current government oversight and scientific evaluation of GM mosquitoes do not ensure their responsible deployment. They write, "There is a potential bias and conflict of interest when experimental trials and assessments of ecological risk lack political accountability and are performed by, or in close collaboration with, the technology developers. This scenario becomes more troubling with a for-profit technology company when cost- and risk-benefit analyses comparing GM mosquitoes with other approaches aren’t being conducted." Slate

 

 

Farming and conservation groups have asked the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to find US EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler in contempt for refusing to abide by a federal court order suspending use of the pesticide dicamba. In response to last week’s court decision holding that the EPA wrongly approved formulations of the drift-prone pesticide that has damaged millions of acres of crops, the EPA issued an order allowing continued spraying through July 31. In approving ongoing use of dicamba through July, Wheeler cited what he asserted was the harm the court’s ruling would have on farmers using dicamba. But the court made clear that by wrongly approving use of the pesticide, the EPA is directly responsible for any harm to farmers – both those using dicamba and those whose crops have been damaged by it. Center for Biological Diversity