06/July/20

 

GMWatch has teamed up with GM Freeze and Beyond GM to produce a short political briefing and a detailed action briefing explaining why the amendment to the Agriculture Bill, aimed at de-regulating gene editing, must be rejected. And GMWatch has published a special briefing on why the amendment is contrary to the science. You can “Take Action” on the amendment on the websites of GM Freeze or Beyond GM. GMWatch

 

 

With the upcoming ban on dicamba, the most widely used herbicide for GM soybeans and cotton, still being felt across farm country, a parallel legal challenge may end with its logical successor being removed from the market as well. Agriculture experts say dicamba’s likely replacement would be Corteva Agriscience’s Enlist Duo, which contains a double package of 2,4-D and glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup. But Enlist is facing its own challenge in court. Litigation brought advocacy groups claims that, in approving Enlist Duo for use on millions of acres, the EPA broke the law. Bloomberg Law

 

 

In an interview, the Norwegian virologist Birger Sørensen lays out the reasons why the most logical explanation for the origin of SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing COVID-19, is that it is a genetically engineered lab escape. Sørensen confirms what we have heard now from several quarters – that scientists raising the possibility of a lab origin (whether genetically engineered or not) for the virus are finding it extremely difficult or impossible to publish their findings in peer-reviewed journals, apparently due to censorship. GMWatch comment on article in Minerva

 

 

In a settlement, $10.9 billion of Bayer’s capital will be forked over to resolve the Roundup-cancer litigation, but Bayer admits no wrongdoing. There will be no warning labels. The attorneys who constructed this class action provision in the settlement will receive payouts of $150 million each. The blogger Glyphosate Girl comments, "They sold out, and it impacts all of us, and innumerable plaintiffs who deserved their own trial in front of a jury." glyphosategirl.com

 

 

One in six Americans fall ill every year from the food they eat. In Britain, it is one in 28. The negotiations over the shape of the final relationship between Britain and the EU have resumed in earnest, making the next three or four months among the most fateful of our lives. The grandstanding is over. And food quality, standards and security are going to become flashpoints. But no minister dare admit the obvious – that no trade deal with the US will pass US Congress unless there are major concessions to American big food. GMWatch comment on article in the Guardian