31 October 2019 — GMWatch
Over 42,000 lawsuits in the US alone allege the herbicide Roundup has caused cancer
EXCERPT: Bayer has haemorrhaged around $43 billion in market value since acquiring Monsanto.
Gregor Heard
Farm Weekly, 31 Oct 2019
https://www.farmweekly.com.au/story/6469073/bayer-faces-lawsuit-horror/
1 November 2019 — GMWatch
The European Court of Justice ruled last year that new GMOs are still GMOs: But Finland and the Commission are dragging their feet, writes Eric Meunier of Inf’OGM
29 October 2019 — Counter Currents
The renowned author and whistleblower Evaggelos Vallianatos describes British environmentalist and campaigner Dr Rosemary Mason as a “defender of the natural world and public health.” I first came across her work a few years ago. It was in the form of an open letter she had sent to an official about the devastating environmental and human health impacts of glyphosate-based weed killers. What had impressed me was the document she had sent to accompany the letter. It was over 20 pages long and contained official data and referred to a plethora of scientific papers to support the case she was making.
25 October 2019 — GMWatch
New review shows exposure to the herbicide could have “implications for overall long-term colony survival”
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.
24 October 2019 — The New Dark Age
9 stories on the global impact of pesticides on ALL life on the planet (all in PDF format).
9 stories on the global impact of pesticides on ALL life on the planet.
Neonicotinoid insecticides, glyphosate and Roundup Ready GM Crops
Last year the Guardian published letters from all over the country asking this question. Both the neonicotinoid insecticides and glyphosate (Roundup) herbicide appear to be responsible.1
The UK government, the NFU, the Farming Minister, the Defra Minister, Defra and the Department of Health are supporting glyphosate and systemic neonicotinoid insecticides. Some UK farmers say it will be impossible to farm without access to these two chemicals. They are voting to grow GM Roundup Ready Crops after Brexit.
Has Monsanto told the truth about GM Roundup Ready crops? Monsanto, Bayer and Syngenta coat their GMO corn seeds with neonics but charge farmers extra for them— even though studies show that neonic-coated seeds provide no real benefit to farmers.
A new review of carcinogenicity assessments of pesticide active ingredients shows 40 percent were not carried out in compliance with existing European guidelines, leading to possible continued exposure of farmers and consumers to cancer-causing pesticides.[1] In 30 percent of the cases, significant details were missing from the dossiers, raising uncertainties about how European authorities came to the conclusion they did.
“Corporate totalitarianism … rules through dispensability and corruption. It treats communities, people, countries, ecosystems and species as disposable and dispensable.”
Update on glyphosate renewal: On May 17 2017, the European Commission announced its intention to renew the license for glyphosate for 10 years despite a petition last year from 1.5 million citizens urging them not to. The British Government and civil servants supported this renewal wholeheartedly. But are they aware of the implications? The EU Commission was in a hurry because it didn’t want to wait for the Monsanto Papers to come out. However, MEPs have asked for an inquiry into them.
19 October 2019 — The Web of Debt Blog
Canada is to become the second country after Uruguay to legalize the recreational use of cannabis. Adults will be able to purchase cannabis from “federally licensed producers”. At present, Canada has according to the BBC “one of the highest rates of cannabis use” Worldwide. “Canadians spent an estimated C$5.7bn ($4.6bn; £3.5bn) in 2017 alone on combined medical and recreational use – about $1,200 per user. The bulk of that spending was on black market marijuana.” (BBC, October 14, 2018).
4 October 2019 — GMWatch
After more than 10 years of battling Monsanto’s “bogus” drought tolerant maize project, the African Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) has welcomed the decision by the Minister of Agriculture, Ms Thoko Didiza, upholding the decision by the Executive Council: GMO Act and the appeal board to reject Monsanto’s application for the commercial cultivation of its triple-stacked “drought-tolerant” GM maize seed.
24 September 2019 — Counter Currents
Much of the following article is based on a new 20-page report by environmentalist Dr Rosemary Mason. Readers are urged to access the full report containing all relevant citations: Download.
In a new paper published in King’s Law Journal – ‘The Chemical Anthropocene: Glyphosate as a Case Study of Pesticide Exposures’ – the authors Alessandra Arcuri and Yogi Hale Hendlin state:
10 September 2019 — Dissident Voice
The information below and the quotes were taken from the 12-page report that accompanied Rosemary Mason’s recent open letter to the Chief Medical Officer to England, Sally Davies. It can be accessed here.
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Campaigner and environmentalist Dr Rosemary Mason has written an open letter to the Chief Medical Officer of England, Sally Davies. In it, Mason states that none of the more than 400 pesticides that have been authorised in the UK have been tested for long-term actions on the brain: in the foetus, in children or in adults.
4 September 2019 — Common Dreams
“What we need is more humming and buzzing.”
by Andrea Germanos, staff writer
Protesters hold balloons on January 20, 2018 in Berlin during a demonstration under the slogan “We are fed up” against agricultural politics and the use of glyphosate, dumping exports and for sustainable agriculture. (Photo: Tobias Schwarz/AFP/Getty Images)
The German government announced Wednesday it had agreed on a plan to phase out the use of glyphosate—the key chemical in the weedkiller Roundup—with a total ban set to begin by the end of 2023.
24 August 2019 — Colin Todhunter
In his first speech to parliament as British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson said:
Let’s start now to liberate the UK’s extraordinary bioscience sector from anti-genetic modification rules and let’s develop the blight-resistant crops that will feed the world.
Johnson reads from a well-rehearsed script. The ‘GM will feed the world mantra’ is pure industry spin. There is already enough food being produced to feed the global population yet around 830 million are classed as hungry. Feeding the world effectively, sustainably and equitably involves addressing the in-built injustices of the global food system.
13 August 2019 — Climate & Capitalism
BOOK REVIEW
Activists make the case that this widely used pesticide is wreaking havoc on the earth, killing not just weeds but multiple species, including our own
Mitchel Cohen, editor
THE FIGHT AGAINST MONSANTO’S ROUNDUP
The Politics of Pesticides
Skyhorse Publishing, 2019
Reviewed by Chris Kinder
Better Living Through Chemistry? Think Again!
