23/September/20

 

Twice in the past two months, vandals have struck Terry Fuller's farm, destroying tractor engines and burning stacks of hay. Each attack came immediately after Fuller appeared before Arkansas's state legislature on behalf of a state agency that's investigating farmers suspected of illegally using a herbicide called dicamba. Fuller doesn't think it's a coincidence. Dicamba is sprayed on GM dicamba-tolerant crops but tends to drift off-target, killing other non-tolerant crops and plants. NPR

 

 

Recent proposals by groups like the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), as well as research scientists and institutions and some rewilding proponents, suggest that gene-editing technologies may support and even advance multiple goals in conservation. The suggestion has been met with a wide spectrum of responses, both for and against. But absent from much of this discourse have been the voices of conservation groups themselves. Beyond GM contacted major conservation groups to better understand their thinking. The survey results showed that the groups do not have a detailed or sophisticated understanding of the issue, and some felt that the issue was not relevant to them. But respondents were nevertheless clear about the need for strong government regulation. Beyond GM

 

 

We are often exposed to a toxic concoction of chemicals that can affect our mood, health and bodily functions. Kendra Klein, a senior scientist from Friends of the Earth US, tells in an interview how even the smallest of exposures to pesticides matter and how switching to an organic diet can dramatically decrease the pesticide buildup in our bodies by around 70 per cent in just six days. Klein says of people who don’t have access to organic food, "that’s a human rights issue". New Internationalist