News

CRISPR gene editing creates a "mess" in the cattle's cellular makeup, but the FDA thinks it doesn't matter. Report: Claire Robinson

US regulators at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have cleared the way for the sale of beef from gene-edited "slick-haired" cattle after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) concluded the animals do not raise any safety concerns.

German brewery was involved in ‘beer monopolies’

Recent patent research by No Patents on Seeds! shows that the European Patent Office (EPO) is about to grant Carlsberg (EP1727905) another patent on beer and barley. Currently, an increasing number of patent applications are being filed for conventionally-bred barley and the beer brewed thereof. Besides Carlsberg, CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation), based in Australia, is especially active in this area. The largest German brewery, Radeberger, is also among the stakeholders who showed interest in using patented barley.

New report from CBAN (Canada) and Testbiotech (Germany)

In the European Union and Canada, there are ongoing debates about deregulating organisms derived from methods of new genetic engineering (New GE, also called genome editing or new genomic techniques). Proposals to exempt genome editing from government regulation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) largely rest on assumptions about similarities between genome editing and conventional plant breeding that are not supported by scientific findings. These assumptions have led to the impression that there are no new and specific risks caused by New GE as compared to conventional breeding.

Possibly due to the high price, sales of genome-edited tomatoes are not doing too well, and the developer Sanatech Seed and the manufacturer Pioneer Ecoscience decided to distribute seedlings free of charge to welfare facilities for the elderly and the disabled as well as elementary schools. The opposition movement against this distribution is gathering strength. On January 27, the OK Seed Project, which started self-labeling seeds and seedlings to make it possible to identify them as non-genome-edited crops, held a press conference to announce that it had collected signatures from people opposing the free distribution and submitted them to the two companies and other organizations. The 9,195 signatures were sent to governors, superintendents of schools, and disability welfare departments across the country and it was also reported that the lobbying of municipalities is strengthening.

In order to tackle the grave threat of the biodiversity crisis, the EU will table a proposal for targets for the reduction of pesticide use. This has put the pesticide industry into survival mode. A newly leaked document from pesticides lobby group CropLife Europe shows that while it talks a big talk about backing the Green Deal, in reality it is employing a wide variety of lobbying tactics to undermine ambitious, binding targets.

The pesticide industry's toxic lobbying tactics against Farm to Fork

In order to tackle the grave threat of the biodiversity crisis, the EU will table a proposal for targets for the reduction of pesticide use. This has put the pesticide industry into survival mode. A new leaked document from pesticides lobby group CropLife Europe shows that while it talks a big talk about backing the Green Deal, in reality it is employing a wide variety of lobbying tactics to undermine ambitious, binding targets.

As state regulators consider field trials, scientists and advocates point to potential risks, lack of public consultation.

The US Environmental Protection Agency’s decision last week to allow the release of billions of genetically engineered mosquitoes in California and Florida has several environmental and public health groups worried about the potential impacts of the experimental releases on public health and the environment.

The EPA move follows last year’s pilot field trial in the Florida Keys where, starting April 2021, the British biotechnology company Oxitec and the Florida Keys Mosquito Control released half a billion of these transgenic mosquitoes.

Sale marks latest step by the German pharmaceutical company to lower debt as it continues to defend legal claims in the U.S.

Bayer has been seeking to lower debt since its big bet on agriculture with its $63 billion acquisition of Monsanto in 2018 turned sour.

BERLIN—Bayer AG agreed to sell its pest-control unit to private-equity firm Cinven for $2.6 billion, as the German chemical and drug giant seeks to focus on its core agricultural portfolio and reduce debt.

Today, Center for Food Safety (CFS) filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for unlawfully withholding records regarding FDA's environmental assessment of genetically engineered (GE) salmon and a planned Ohio-based production facility—a major expansion from current capacity. The FOIA lawsuit comes on the heels of CFS and allies' successful lawsuit holding FDA's approval of GE salmon unlawful. FDA's approval marked the first time any government in the world had approved a GE animal as food.

Save Our Seeds Programme is a series of training meetings for young activists, educators, artists, local and national leaders of formal organizations and informal movements, experienced campaigners, agroecological farmers, breeders, scientists, philosophers and seed savers.

The programme will be divided into two parts – the public-open part, streamed online for a wider public and a closed part – an online workshop programme for our collective of activists

The collective will consist of:

a) a group of around 20 MENTORS (experienced activists, lecturers, scientists, agroecology and organic farming practitioners, seed savers, educators, philosophers and campaigners) from different EU countries,

b) a group of 20-30 young (16-30 years old) activists, community leaders, artists and campaigners, interested in agroecological issues and taking action.

The young activists interested in joining the collective will undergo an application process. All EU nationals between 16 and 30 years can apply.

Deadline: 30.03.2022