24/July/20

 

UC Davis scientists spent years gene editing a sex-determining gene into bovine embryos using the CRISPR tool. In April, the bull calf Cosmo arrived — but the chaos caused in his DNA reveals how far the field has to go. [See a GMWatch comment on this article here.] WIRED

 

 

With Brexit comes the potential for the UK to negotiate free trade agreements with individual countries. The US and UK have gone through two rounds of negotiations, with the second round completed at the end of June. A major sticking point is around agriculture, including pesticide residues. The US standards on pesticide residues are weaker than the UK’s. Some pesticides used in the US are banned in the UK, which has zero “tolerances” for certain kinds of residues. PANNA

 

 

Trees are being genetically engineered to have new traits such as faster growth, insect and disease resistance, herbicide tolerance and altered wood composition. Though none of these genetically engineered trees are legal yet, a blight-resistant American chestnut is being proposed for release in the US and Canada. Theresa Church of the Global Justice Ecology Project says that the genetically engineered tree experiment is risky, unproven and irreversible and that it should be rejected. Take action here. Bangor Daily News

 

 

Records obtained by the USA Today Network show hundreds of incidents have occurred in labs across the country in recent years. For example, equipment failures of air-purifying respirators potentially exposed workers to the deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza during separate incidents in June and September 2014 at the USDA's Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory in Athens, Georgia, records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show. [GMW: This article is from 2015 but it's highly relevant today.] USA Today