Environment
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Data centres: An opportunity for MPs to get answers
An influential committee of MPs has launched an inquiry into the long-term future of the UK’s water supply. This could be an opportunity for MPs to demand answers about the giant “hyperscale” data centres which Big Tech companies want to build across the country – Foxglove needs your help to get those MPs’ attention. Continue reading
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GM Watch Daily Digest 10 April 2025
Thursday, 10 April 2025 — GM Watch US: Girl Scout cookies contain heavy metals beyond safe limits as well as glyphosate, lawsuit alleges Girl Scout cookies contain lead, arsenic, cadmium, aluminium and mercury at levels that often exceed regulators’ recommended limits, as well as concerning amounts of glyphosate herbicide, a new class action lawsuit alleges. Continue reading
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Tell DEFRA: New GMO seeds ARE your business!
Last week we contacted our members and supporters to urge them to respond to a DEFRA consultation on whether new GM seeds (dubbed ‘precision bred’ by the Westminster government) will be labelled. We pointed out that, although the consultation questions are focussed on business impacts the outcome will affect everyone who buys seeds. It will also… Continue reading
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GM Watch Daily Digest 31 March 2025
Monday, 31 March 2025 — GM Watch Brazil: Mega-operation to combat trade in genetically modified fish A mega-operation launched in seven states and the Federal District of Brazil to combat the illegal keeping and trade of genetically modified ornamental fish has so far resulted in 36 infraction notices, totalling R$2.38 million in fines, and the Continue reading
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Monday, 31 March 2025 — GM Watch Welcome to our latest Review, which leads with the tragic capitulation of EU member states to GMO industry interests in the rush to deregulate GMOs (EU GMO DEREGULATION PROPOSAL). It’s not over yet though, as the European Parliament and enough Member States could still stand up for consumers, Continue reading
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GM Watch Daily Digest 19 March 2025
Wednesday, 19 March 2025 — GM Watch EFSA proposal to weaken risk assessment for “new GM” animals threatens animal welfare GeneWatch UK has submitted a response to the European Food Safety Authority’s (EFSA’s) consultation on its “Draft scientific opinion on new developments in biotechnology applied to animals: an assessment of the adequacy and sufficiency of Continue reading
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“Shocking abandonment of consumers’ right to information” – association of non-GMO food/feed sector
Commenting on the EU vote to deregulate new GMOs, ENGA, the association of the European non-GMO food and feed sector, said, “The result of today’s vote at the COREPER meeting on New Genomic Techniques is highly disappointing: Without traceability and labelling for the majority of New GMOs, the food sector and consumers will not know… Continue reading
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EU ambassadors back new GMOs deregulation: A dark day for farmers, consumers, nature
Today, EU Member States’ deputy ambassadors voted to widely deregulate the new generation of genetically modified organisms (new GMOs, so-called “new genomic techniques”), which means exempting them from any labelling, safety checks, monitoring and liability requirements. Continue reading
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GM Watch Daily Digest 13 March 2025
Thursday, 13 March 2025 — GM Watch Unpacking EU’s food fight over new GMOs At a standstill for months, the EU’s plan to free so-called new genomic techniques (NGTs) from GMO rules could move forward on Friday 14 March — delivering on efforts from Europe’s factory farm capitals to override opposition from countries concerned about Continue reading
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Thames Water poisons our rivers, steals our money!
Thames Water is in court, defending a £3bn bailout. Its profit-hungry owners have let the water network rot while they’ve racked up alarming debts. And now they want customers to pick up the tab through ever-rising water bills. Continue reading
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GM Watch Daily Digest 10 March 2025
Monday, 10 March 2025 — GM Watch Kenya – court orders government to cease permitting GMO imports (video) In Kenya the Court of Appeal has issued orders stopping the government from permitting GMO imports or doing anything to implement its lifting of Kenya’s GMO ban. The Kenyan Peasants League had appealed the decision to lift Continue reading
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GM Watch Daily Digest 27 February 2025
Thursday, 27 February 2025 — GM Watch Company uses gene editing to create glow-in-the-dark rabbits A new startup called the Los Angeles Project aims to speed up that process with genetic engineering to make glow-in-the-dark rabbits, hypoallergenic cats and dogs, and possibly, one day, actual unicorns. The Los Angeles Project is the brainchild of biohacker Continue reading
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GM Watch Daily Digest 26 February 2025
Weddnesday, 26 February 2025 — GM Watch After trade dispute, Mexico officially bans the planting of GM corn Mexico’s lower house of Congress has approved a constitutional reform to ban the planting of GM corn, a move that could lead to more tension with the US after the resolution of a trade dispute. The initiative Continue reading
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Civil society groups warn new Asilomar conference: Scientists must not be allowed to self-regulate
In an open statement, civil society groups, scientists, and academics are challenging the democratic legitimacy of any conclusions or policy proposals that may arise from the 2025 Spirit of Asilomar and the Future of Biotechnology conference currently running from 23-26 February at Asilomar, California. Continue reading
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GM Watch Daily Digest 24 February 2025
Monday, 24 February 2025 — GM Watch Civil society groups warn new Asilomar conference: Scientists must not be allowed to self-regulate In an open statement, civil society groups, scientists, and academics are challenging the democratic legitimacy of any conclusions or policy proposals that may arise from the 2025 Spirit of Asilomar and the Future of Continue reading
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GM Watch Daily Digest 20 February 2025
Thursday, 20 February 2025 — GM Watch Joint letter to the EU Commission: Pseudo-science must not be an option for Europe! Today several civil society organisations (CSOs) – including GMWatch – and industry associations published a joint letter to the European Commission, demanding that they withdraw their proposal for deregulation of plants obtained from new Continue reading
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GM Watch Daily Digest 19 February 2025
Wednesday, 19 February 2025 — GM Watch Divided Kingdom: Devolved nations and the Genetic Technology Act The Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act 2023 aims to deregulate gene-edited organisms (or, as the UK government misleadingly calls them, “precision-bred organisms, PBOs). As the government moves to implement secondary legislation that will make the Act operational by the Continue reading
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GM Watch Daily Digest 14 February 2025
Friday, 14 February 2025 — GM Watch Editor’s note: We apologise for the auto-correct-generated typo in yesterday’s Daily Digest item, the title of which should have read “GM trees promoted as potential future solution to citrus greening disease – but is the (non-GM) solution already out there?” Auto-correct, in its wisdom, changed the title to Continue reading
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GM Watch Daily Digest 13 February 2025
Thursday, 13 February 2025 — GM Watch GM trees promoted as potential future solution to circus greening disease – but is the (non-GM) solution already out there? Researchers at the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences have developed genetically engineered trees that create a protein that forms holes in the gut of Continue reading
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GM WAtch Daily Digest 11 February 2025
Tuesday, 11 February 2025 — GM Watch GMO deregulation threatens breeders, farmers, and the organic and non GMO sectors in the EU European countries must protect farmers, small- and medium-sized seed breeders, and the organic and GM-free sectors from threats to their business posed by the deregulation of new GMOs, warns Greenpeace and more than Continue reading