| | 11/June/20
| | US's new GM crops rule will foster public distrust and impede progress in science In May, federal regulators finalized a new biotechnology policy that will bring sweeping changes to the US food system. Dubbed “SECURE”, the rule revises US Dept of Agriculture regulations over GM plants, automatically exempting many gene-edited crops from government oversight. Companies and labs will be allowed to “self-determine” whether or not a crop should undergo regulatory review or environmental risk assessment. This rule change has a number of people in the food and scientific communities concerned. It reflects the lack of accountability and trust between the public and government agencies setting policies, writes Maywa Montenegro, UC President's Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California, Davis. The Conversation Boris Johnson's US trade deal will make Britain a paradise for disaster capitalists Chlorinated chicken is just the start. The UK government intends to rip up food standards, public services, and public protections, writes George Monbiot. Monbiot says a UK-US trade deal means that "we will bring into this country food whose production is banned here. Either our farmers and food processors will be outcompeted, or our domestic production standards will be brought down to match". [GMW: This article doesn't mention the inadequately labelled and inadequately safety-checked American GM foods that could enter the UK as a result of Boris Johnson's intended trade deal with the US, but on other topics, it's spot on.] The Guardian Ethiopia: Renowned geneticist and agronomist cautions against the adoption of GMO crops A renowned Ethiopian geneticist and agronomist has cautioned against the adoption of GM crops, saying they could pose a serious threat to the tremendous genetic and biological diversity of the country. Dr Melaku Worede, a plant geneticist and former director of the Ethiopian Plant Genetic Resources Centre, said that any move to improve the agricultural inputs of the country should take into account the interests and desires of local farmers who have maintained and adapted their indigenous crop resources for centuries, and should not be imposed in a top-down fashion. He said, “We have other types of farming methods that are delivering drought-tolerant crops and enhancement value." Ethiopia Observer Updated link for Dr Michael Antoniou interview on SARS-CoV-2 In our most recent Review, we mentioned an interview that the Italian journalist Paolo Barnard conducted with the molecular geneticist Dr Michael Antoniou about the possibility that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is a genetically engineered creation that escaped from a lab. The interview was published on Youtube, but Youtube subsequently took it down, so some GMWatch subscribers may have missed seeing it. Now it's been reposted on Youtube and is available here. Paolo Barnard via Youtube DONATE TO GMWATCH __________________________________________________________ Website: http://www.gmwatch.org
Profiles: http://www.powerbase.info/index.php/GM_Watch:_Portal
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GMWatch
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/GMWatch/276951472985?ref=nf |
|
