16/June/20

 

The GMO-boosting reporter Robin McKie has written a typically biased GMO promotional in The Observer (published on The Guardian website) regarding the attempt by a group of MPs and Lords to sneak gene editing into the UK's Agriculture Bill without full Parliamentary scrutiny and thus to de-regulate it. The article, which features no critical voices, tells us that "The change will be proposed when the current Agriculture Bill reaches its committee stages in the House of Lords next month." GMWatch comment on article in The Observer

 

 

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is facing a lawsuit over its approval of a plan to release genetically modified mosquitoes in Florida and Texas. Several groups, including the Center for Food Safety, the International Center for Technology Assessment and Friends of the Earth filed a notice of intent to sue on Friday. They alleged that the EPA violated the law by failing to consult with wildlife agencies before determining that the mosquitoes will not pose risks to threatened species. The Hill

 

 

Despite the known problems with GM Bt cotton, many African countries are considering adopting it, based on the promise of financial benefits. It's against this background that the Textile Exchange Pan-Africa Sourcing Working Group has published a report, "Cotton in Africa: Sustainability at a Crossroads". The report gives a vivid impression of the widespread failure of GM cotton, which has been plagued by pest attacks, rising chemical pesticide and other input requirements, and farmer indebtedness, leading in some cases to suicides. It makes a case for organic and "preferred cotton" production methods, which can boost farmer income and revitalize rural economies. GMWatch

 

 

The lab origin theory for SARS-CoV-2 cannot be dismissed on current evidence, writes journalist Ian Birrell. What's more, it's not mere conspiracy theory to ask if the new coronavirus leaked from a Wuhan lab. In fact, the head of biosafety at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China, the lab at the centre of suspicion of accidental release, wrote only last year that the country's high security laboratories lacked sufficient funds for “routine yet vital processes” and that biosafety systems needed to be “further improved and strengthened”. Unherd; comment by GMWatch