22/February/21

 

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has published another report on the risk assessment of plants developed with new genetic engineering. The example chosen by EFSA is CRISPR/Cas-edited wheat with a reduced gluten content. This protein is thought to trigger inflammatory responses. Using CRISPR/Cas meant that several dozen genes and gene copies in the wheat genome were changed at the same time. EFSA rightly concludes that these complex patterns of genetic change go beyond what has been achieved in genetic engineering and conventional breeding thus far. EFSA explained that if an application for market approval was filed, then risk assessment should take into account issues such as molecular changes, gene expression and the potential impact on health and the environment. Testbiotech comments that the EFSA report shows that detailed risk assessment must be carried out even if no additional genes are inserted. But in showing this, EFSA contradicts its own earlier opinion on certain types of gene-edited plants. GMWatch

 

 

On 7 January 2021, the UK government’s environment secretary George Eustice announced on behalf of the farm and environment ministry DEFRA a public consultation on the government’s proposal to deregulate gene-edited crops and foods, so that they would no longer be classified as GMOs. This means vital safety checks would be removed and these new types of experimental GMOs would not be required by law to be labelled for the consumer. This is GMOs by the back door. It is vital that everyone who is concerned about protecting the safety of food, farming and/or the environment responds to this consultation by 17 March 2021. We need as many people as possible to respond, even if you can only send a brief and simple response. Help is available on how to respond. GMWatch

 

 

The devolved nations, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, have been warned that trucks of gene-edited (GE) food “are going to roll across the borders” as England looks to legalise the technology post-Brexit. Although the regulation of GMOs is devolved, the Internal Market Bill’s “non-discrimination clause” means that the devolved nations will be powerless to bar GE goods produced in England from being sold within their borders. The National

 

 

The UK (Westminster) Government has been accused of breaking its own rules with its recently launched consultation on the introduction of gene-edited (GE) foods into the UK. Although Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) claims its position “follows the science”, Beyond GM director and co-founder Pat Thomas said: “It is notable that the consultation document itself – which makes sweeping statements about gene editing being the same as traditional breeding or what could happen in nature – contains no references, scientific or otherwise.” In a letter, Beyond GM’s directors, Pat Thomas and Lawrence Woodward, write to the UK Government to express their concerns that “the consultation is not being conducted in line with the Cabinet Office Consultation Principles”. The National

 

 

A 3-year study on squash bees found that the squash bees dug 85% fewer nests, left 5.3x more pollen unharvested, and produced 89% fewer offspring than untreated controls when exposed to a squash treated at planting with the neonic insecticide imidacloprid. One of the researchers, Nigel Raine, commented on Twitter that such substantial sublethal impacts of imidacloprid exposure indicate squash bee populations nesting in pumpkin fields will decline, such that continued crop pollination would only be possible with a yearly influx of new bees. Nigel Raine on Twitter