25/August/20

 

An organic farmer’s hospitalisation after intruders doused his vegetables with glyphosate has “become a cause célèbre in France, which is facing a growing backlash against intensive agriculture", reports Henry Samuel in The Telegraph. Over the past five years Tristan and Oriane Arlaud's organic farm has also been subjected to a series of damaging attacks. In the latest of these, six of their nine greenhouses, covering 4,000 square metres were vandalized by intruders who also attacked their plants. According to The Telegraph, “After spending hours seeking to save his prized tomatoes, peppers and courgettes, and consuming some, Mr Arlaud fell unexpectedly ill and was hospitalised.” GMWatch

 

 

A new study from Argentina, which used the methodological criteria of the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC), has identified a relationship between environmental and residential exposure to glyphosate and the high prevalence of asthma in the small city of Monte Maíz in Argentina. This study has a very unusual story, as it was started at the request of a group of citizens, led by the Mayor of Monte Maíz, due to their concerns about previously rare diseases becoming more prevalent in the city. Sustainable Pulse

 

 

Farmers in Argentina are using increasing amounts of herbicides and other agrochemicals to boost their crop yields. In the country’s Gran Chaco region, the unregulated use of agrochemicals has had devastating ecological effects, including the contamination of water sources that residents depend on. The Gran Chaco’s waterways are also under pressure from industrial pollution, heavy metals, oil spills, and arsenic found naturally in underground reservoirs. Mongabay

 

 

Despite the diplomatically opaque new name, gene editing is turbo-charged genetic engineering, only so far with better PR. But if the free traders and corporate influencers in Westminster get their way and deregulate the law that currently governs genetic engineering there, gene-edited foods could be green lighted, unlabelled, for English plates, so that most people wouldn’t realise that they were eating them, food writer Joanna Blythman reports. The Herald (Scotland)

 

 

Local officials in Florida have approved the release of 750 million mosquitoes that have been genetically modified to reduce local populations. The green-lighting of a pilot project after years of debate drew a swift outcry from environmental groups, who warned of unintended consequences. BBC News

 

 

From January 1, 2021, importers of 24 major food crops will have to mandatorily declare that the products are not genetically modified. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has issued this order to ensure that only non-GM food crops come into the country. The FSSAI is in the process of framing regulations on GM foods. The Hindu BusinessLine

 

 

University researchers genetically engineer a human pandemic virus. They inject the new virus into a laboratory mouse. The infected mouse then bites a researcher.... It is a plot worthy of a Hollywood blockbuster about risky coronavirus research. But according to newly obtained minutes of the Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC) of the University of North Carolina (UNC), Chapel Hill, these exact events need not be imagined. They occurred for real between April 1st and May 6th this year. Independent Science News