Pressure on the EU to Deregulate New GMO Products

A year after the European Court of Justice ruled that the EU’s GMO rules should apply to new GM techniques, industry groups and the US Government are keeping up pressure on the European Union to deregulate, with implications for food and biosafety, as well as consumer choice. […]

Gene-editing Fails to Confer Virus Resistance but Develops Mutated Viruses in Cassava

An attempt to create virus-resistant cassava using gene editing not only failed to achieve such resistance but resulted in the propagation of mutated CRISPR-resistant viruses under controlled laboratory conditions. […]

Manifesto on Food for Health: Cultivating Biodiversity, Cultivating Health

A Manifesto on Food for Health calls for a transition to an ecological, systemic and regenerative paradigm of food production, i.e., agroecology, which is based on biodiversity and maximizes the benefits to the health and wellbeing of people and planet. […]

Glyphosate Residues Higher in People with Chronic Liver Disease

Glyphosate residues have been found to be significantly higher in patients with non-alcoholic steatohepatitis than in patients with a healthier liver, providing an observational link between the herbicide exposure and liver disease in humans. […]

New Book: Gene Drives – Legal and Regulatory Issues

New TWN book on the legal and regulatory aspects relating to gene drive organisms (GDOs). […]

Civil Society Denounces the Release of GM mosquitoes in Burkina Faso

Civil society organisations from Africa and around the world have strongly criticised the release of GM “male-sterile” mosquitoes in Burkina Faso. They say that the experiment is unethical and unjustifiable as the risks outweigh the benefits. […]

Release of GE American Chestnut Trees into Wild Forests Raises Serious Risks

The risks of introducing the GE American chestnut into forests are numerous and difficult to assess, and regulatory agencies are ill-equipped to evaluate a GE forest tree intended for deliberate spread through wild forests. […]

2,4-D Expected to be Sprayed on Millions of Acres of New GM Soy in the US

2,4-D, a volatile weed-killer linked to cancer and endocrine issues, will likely be sprayed on millions of acres of GM soybeans across the Midwest and South of the USA starting this year. […]

New GM Plants Must be Subject to Case-specific Premarket Risk Assessment

The products of new GMO techniques, including genome editing, cannot be assumed to be safe but must be subjected to a pre-market risk assessment tailored to the specific GMO in question. […]

Outcomes of the FAO’s Second International Symposium on Agroecology

FAO’s Second International Symposium on Agroecology was held in April 2018. The organisation stands ready to assist countries in the implementation of agroecological transitions towards sustainable agriculture and food systems in support of the SDGs. […]