| | 29/March/21
| | Bill Gates finances lobby for "new GMOs" in Europe Research by Corporate Europe Observatory shows that in order to influence the political decision-making process, Bill Gates, via his Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has paid a large sum - 1.3 million euros - "for a dialogue with a wide range of European stakeholders on genome editing” to Re-Imagine Europa, a European think tank. A few months after this payment, the organization created an ad hoc working group, "the Task Force on Sustainable Agriculture and Innovation", chaired by a former Commissioner for Research and Innovation, Carlos Moedas. Its stated objective: "Work on how new technologies could help us realize this vision of a new, more sustainable agricultural system." But above all, to act within the European institutions so that the strict regulations on GMOs do not apply, or apply much more lightly, to the new genome editing technologies. The pro-deregulation lobby groups ALLEA and EU-SAGE (a lobby platform set up by the Flanders Institute for Biotechnology, VIB) are both sub-awardees to the Re-Imagine Europa project on gene editing. Corporate Europe Observatory has released a stash of documents obtained via freedom of information laws, known as the CRISPR files, that reveal these facts and others. Corporate Europe Observatory French media article on the Gates lobbying story The French environmental daily Reporterre has published a detailed article on the Gates lobbying story (see above), taking in the lobbying activities of groups such as EPSO, ALLEA and EU-SAGE behind the scenes in Brussels, which are all focused on deregulating new GMOs. An unofficial English translation from the French by Google/GMWatch is posted on the GMWatch site. GMWatch Bayer won’t ask US Supreme Court to reverse Roundup loss Bayer won’t seek US Supreme Court review of the first verdict finding its Roundup herbicide caused cancer. The company said that the decision not to pursue a further appeal of the verdict won by a school groundskeeper after a state appeals court reduced it to $20.5 million was made after “careful and extensive consideration”. Litigation over Roundup - which plaintiffs claim causes cancer - remains Bayer’s biggest challenge. After losing three trials over the matter in the US, the company has been negotiating with tens of thousands of claimants for more than a year and a half, and has still failed to put the litigation behind it. Bloomberg How do genetically engineered crops speed up the spread of plant pests? Recent Chinese and Brazilian studies strongly indicate that the cultivation of transgenic insecticidal plants can speed up the spread of specific plant pests. Unexpected and complex environmental interactions play a crucial role in this context. The research was carried out with genetically engineered cotton and soybeans that produce Bt toxins. GMWatch DONATE TO GMWATCH __________________________________________________________ Website: http://www.gmwatch.org
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