The New Dark Age

Are genetically engineered foods safe? In an interview with Stacy Malkan of US Right to Know, the leading molecular genetics expert Prof Michael Antoniou discusses the scientific evidence behind health concerns tied to GM corn and pesticides, how GMOs are changing in ways that increase health risks, and how regulatory systems have failed to keep pace with modern genetics. Prof Antoniou has studied for more than 35 years how genes function and how they are disrupted. His decades of rigorous independent research into the risks of GM foods and glyphosate-based herbicides have raised serious concerns about the safety of these technologies. In a report he prepared for the Mexican government, as the country attempted to restrict GMO corn imports for health reasons, Prof Antoniou cited “a large body of evidence from well-controlled laboratory animal toxicity studies that show evidence of harm to multiple physiological systems” from toxic agents found in GM corn. US Right to Know, via GMWatch

Five Dutch ministries, led by the Ministry of Agriculture, are playing a key role in lobbying in Brussels for a significant relaxation of the strict regulations surrounding genetically modified crops, a Dutch TV programme revealed. This is despite several motions calling on the ministry to advocate for robust frameworks. The analysis of more than a thousand pages of internal documents shows that the ministries are primarily concerned about the competitive position of the Dutch seed industry. Concerns from citizens, members of the House of Representatives, and smaller breeders are being ignored. Under the EU Commission’s proposal, any NGT [new GM, “new genomics techniques”] plant with fewer than twenty DNA modifications would be exempt from a comprehensive risk assessment and mandatory labelling. Internal emails between officials in 2023 and 2024 reveal that the Netherlands actively tried to persuade other member states to vote in favour of the proposal. Lists were kept of critical countries that still needed to be convinced. The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Nature (LVVN) also organised a meeting with like-minded member states to discuss their strategy prior to a key vote. Argos (Dutch language article accompanying the TV programme)

As co-owner of a family seed breeding business, Grietje Raaphorst usually spends her days tending to the corn plants that fill her fields. She carefully crosses them or harvests seeds from the cobs that she and her husband have spent decades adapting to thrive in the Dutch climate. Yet for the past three years, she has spent more time dealing with large seed companies and their patent lawyers than with corn kernels and pollen. The Raaphorsts’ goal was to develop cold-resistant crops that could be harvested earlier in the year, so that the soil would be spared the damage caused by heavy machinery during a wet autumn harvest. But since the German seed company KWS patented a method for growing cold-resistant maize in 2022, Raaphorst’s company, Nordic Maize, has been at risk of being taken to court for infringing this patent. A patent blocks use and commercialisation, unless an expensive licence is paid. “For traditional breeders such as Nordic Maize, this is a matter of life and death,” says Christoph Then of No Patents on Seeds. New GMO techniques, such as CRISPR-Cas, would make it even easier for large agricultural corporations to satisfy their hunger for new patents. De Groene Amsterdammer (Dutch language article)

In April, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins and Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr. went to Texas to tour farms and agriculture research facilities and learn “how America’s farmers are working to Make America Healthy Again”, according to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). During a press conference, a reporter told the duo that Texas ranchers are worried about “forever chemical” contamination caused by biosolids used for fertiliser and asked what the Trump administration was doing about it. The chemicals don’t break down but accumulate in the environment and can cause serious health harms. Rollins and Kennedy said they were concerned about farm soils being contaminated with the chemicals, called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS — commonly referred to as forever chemicals. “We want to end the production of PFAS,” Kennedy said. But the pesticide industry is moving in the opposite direction — with the help of the Trump administration that Kennedy serves in. Between April and June this year, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed the approval of four new pesticides that qualify as PFAS. Civil Eats

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