Posted November 12, 2019
THE SCALE of the legal mess crop protection giant Bayer inherited upon its purchase of Monsanto was laid bare this week as the German-based business revealed there were over 42,000 lawsuits in the US alone alleging the herbicide Roundup has caused cancer. Read more.
Get Informed on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)
Wake-Up Call for Organic Advocates: Synbio Poses Greater Threat than Old-School GMOs
Posted November 12, 2019
We in the organic sector need to stop thinking in terms of GMOs. Those old-school crops and suspect agricultural practices are still a problem for organic growers. But the new synthetic biology is an even larger and growing threat. First, it is not disclosed or labeled. Read more.
Why Dr. Zach Bush Believes Herbicides Could End Life on Earth
Posted November 12, 2019
Dr. Zach Bush will tell you he is “very much” trained as a traditional, patient-facing MD, yet you wouldn’t necessarily expect that given his present-day work. After studying internal medicine, which included a training on hormone medicine, Bush became interested in cancer research and started developing chemotherapy treatments. Yet he soon felt frustrated that his work was doing nothing to prevent the things that caused cancer in the first place. Read more.
New FDA Report on Pesticides in Fruits and Vegetables Adds to Growing Public Health Concerns
Posted November 12, 2019
Over 55 pages of data, charts and graphs, the FDA’s “Pesticide Residue Monitoring Program” report also provides a rather unappetizing example of the degree to which U.S. farmers have come to rely on synthetic insecticides, fungicides and herbicides in growing our food. Read more.
The Terrifying Truth about GMO Candy
Posted October 29, 2019
It’s Halloween season. Beware of the scare tactics about health advocates that may sneak up on you. A previous article by a GMO proponent Julie Kelly in The Chicago Tribune used the Jelly Belly Company decision to go organic as a “lifestyle choice” to spread more lies about GMOs. Read more.
In Oregon Wine Country, One Farmer’s Battle to Save the Soil
Posted October 29, 2019
Mimi Casteel hates the word “weeds,” particularly when referring to unexpected plants growing in her vineyard here in this hamlet in the Willamette Valley. To think of weeds as invasive species, she believes, is to vastly simplify the intricate workings of nature that humans, in their efforts to assert agricultural control, have disrupted with disastrous consequences. Read more.
Glyphosate Impairs Honeybee Sensory and Cognitive Abilities
Posted October 28, 2019
A new review of the scientific literature (see abstract below) has found that exposure to glyphosate, the active ingredient in glyphosate herbicides like Roundup, impairs the foraging behaviour of honeybee workers and has adverse effects at different levels within the colony. Read more.
Antibiotic-Resistant GMO Genes Persist in Sewage Sludge, Researchers find
Posted October 25, 2019
Antibiotic-resistant genes that have been inserted into genetically modified food are able to withstand conventional wastewater treatments. The findings, contained in a research paper published recently in the journal, Biotechnology and Bioengineering (see abstract below), might point to a previously unknown way that bacteria may become resistant to life-saving antibiotics. Read more.
USAID to Invest $70 million in New Global Agbiotech Initiatives
Posted October 25, 2019
The US Agency for International Development (USAID) plans to invest $70 million in new agricultural biotechnology initiatives to help deal with food insecurity challenges across the world. Read more.
Struggle to save Heirloom Rice in India
Posted October 24, 2019
A fascinating and shocking article has been published in Scientific American by Dr Debal Deb, an ecologist and “seed warrior” who has conserved more than 1420 of India’s native rice varieties in the last 25 years. The article describes how India originally possessed some 110,000 landraces of rice with diverse and valuable properties. These include enrichment in vital nutrients and the ability to withstand flood, drought, salinity or pest infestations. Read more.
