18/September/20

 

A Quebec government agronomist who was fired after exposing private-sector meddling into public research about pesticides has been offered his job back following the release of a scathing report into the way the province handled his case. In her report made public Thursday, the province's ombudsman, Marie Rinfret, said the Agricultural Ministry failed to follow Quebec legislation protecting whistleblowers after Louis Robert went public with his concerns. "Our investigation shows that the law was not respected and that the breaches were significant," she said. CBC

 

 

A green weedkiller used by councils across Britain kills the virus that causes Covid-19 in less than 10 seconds, according to new research. Experiments found Foamstream destroyed 99.99 per cent of virus particles almost instantly. The eco-friendly product is one of the fastest-acting treatments for preventing spread, say scientists. Foamstream is made of near-boiling hot water, blended with natural plant oils and sugars including wheat, maize, potatoes, rapeseed and coconut oil, with no added chemicals. Daily Mirror

 

 

Scientists brought more bad news to light regarding the widely used herbicide glyphosate, better known as Roundup, in a new research paper published this month. Researchers from the University of Turku in Finland reveal that manure from poultry used as fertilizer can decrease crop yields when the manure contains residues of glyphosate-based herbicides, such as Roundup. Fertilizers are meant to increase crop production, so the evidence that glyphosate residues can have the opposite effect is significant. US Right to Know

 

 

Initially claimed to be safer than table salt, glyphosate has been classified as probably carcinogenic to humans by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) of WHO in 2015. After the introduction of herbicide-tolerant (HT) GM crops in some countries, its use has increased, leading to health and ecological consequences. In India, the government is inviting public comments to a proposal to restrict its use to licensed operators. ASHA Kisan Swaraj, a nationwide network of volunteers working for promotion of agroecology-based farming systems, present some global and national level experiences to draw lessons for India based on scientific evidence on this topic. ASHA Kisan Swaraj