01/March/21

 

Green MEPs Benoît Biteau and Martin Häusling argue that new GM technology – notably gene editing – won’t solve the problems of industrial agriculture and will undermine nature, climate protection and the European Green Deal. They write, "The GM seed industry is telling us fairy tales: Don’t believe them". With this warning in mind, they are promoting a new report published by the Greens/EFA in the European Parliament and written by GMWatch editor Claire Robinson with technical advice from Dr Michael Antoniou. Called "Gene editing myths and reality", the report deconstructs eight common myths that are being used to hype gene editing, citing peer-reviewed studies and other authoritative sources. GMWatch

 

 

When Bayer paid $63 billion in 2018 to buy Monsanto, the deal was seen as a boost to Bayer’s wealth and power. But only two years later, Bayer was forced to agree to pay $11 billion to settle the claims of more than 100,000 cancer victims who alleged their suffering was caused by the use of Monsanto’s flagship herbicide, Roundup. That settlement may never have happened without Lee Johnson. Carey Gillam's new book, The Monsanto Papers: Deadly secrets, corporate corruption, and one man’s search for justice (published March 2, 2021), tells the inside story of Lee Johnson’s landmark lawsuit against Monsanto after a workplace accident left Lee doused in Monsanto’s herbicide and facing a deadly cancer. Lee was the first to take Monsanto to trial, drawing attention from around the world as his case became one of the most dramatic legal battles in courthouse history. GMWatch

 

 

Dozens of US law firms have formed a coalition to fight a new $2 billion settlement proposal by Monsanto owner Bayer that aims to contain the company’s ongoing liability related to claims that Roundup herbicides cause a cancer called non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). The settlement is designed to compensate people who have been exposed to Roundup and either already have NHL or may develop NHL in the future, but who have not yet taken steps to file a lawsuit. The small group of lawyers who put the plan together with Bayer say it will “save lives”. But lawyers criticizing the plan say if it is approved it would set a dangerous precedent for other types of litigation involving large numbers of people injured by the products or practices of powerful corporations. US Right to Know

 

 

Scientists in the US have raised concerns in a peer-reviewed paper about the lack of transparency by developers of genetically modified foods (gene-edited ones among them), including the lack of labelling. Now an article has appeared in the mainstream Canadian farming press about this important paper. The article reports author of the paper Prof Jennifer Kuzma as saying that "even though developers of biotech foods want to do better with a second generation of gene editing, they are really making things more complicated by obscuring the terminology and exempting many things from both regulation and labelling." GMWatch