Tucson, Ariz. – In a sweeping victory for family farmers and dozens of endangered plants and animals, a federal court today revoked approval of the notoriously volatile, weed-killing pesticide dicamba.

The drift-prone pesticide has damaged millions of acres of crops and wild plants every year since the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) first approved it in 2017 for spraying on cotton and soybean crops genetically engineered by Monsanto (now Bayer) to survive what would otherwise be a deadly dose. Today's ruling by the U.S. District Court of Arizona in Tucson overturns the EPA's 2020 reapproval of the pesticide, which included additional application restrictions that have nonetheless failed to prevent the ongoing drift damage.

Michael Fakhri, the UN special rapporteur on the right to food.

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He cites the example of genetically modified organisms, which supporters say allows farmers to have predictable crops. Fakhri said they create homogeneity, creating field after field of the same type of plants, which makes them more vulnerable to pests and factors exacerbated by the climate crisis.

“To have this degree of homogeneity is really quite dangerous,” Fakhri said. “It’s bad for the environment and bad for the future of resilient plants.” In addition to damaging the environment, corporations have been falsely attributing price increases to various crises to hide their profiteering, according to the report.

Pairwise to sell mustard greens as salad leaves

The biotech company, Pairwise, has announced that it will soon bring mustard greens produced using new genetic engineering (New GE) techniques to the US market. The plants are genetically engineered with the aim of making the leaves less pungent, and the company has also applied for a patent (WO2021030738). According to a 2022 publication, New GE was used to alter 17 genes in the plant genome in parallel.

Meat Substitutes and Health

"Plant-based meat alternatives are not created equal," agrees Mark Hyman, MD, founder of the Cleveland Clinic's Center for Functional Medicine. A whole-food organic mushroom or lentil burger is good for you, he notes, but "a highly processed GMO soy burger with 110 times the glyphosate needed to harm your microbiome? Maybe not."

Not only does the glyphosate used on GMO soy appear to harm the gut microbiome, it's been deemed a likely carcinogen by the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer. Research also suggests that glyphosate can trouble our endocrine systems.

Newer meat substitutes contain other dicey ingredients. "[A popular fake burger] contains pea-protein isolate, which is a processed pea protein, so it is stripped of many nutrients," says functional-medicine practitioner Liz Lipski, PhD, CNS, LDN. "The canola oil doesn't state that it's organic, which means it is GMO."

Company's US patents are now being challenged. Report: Claire Robinson

The European Patent Office (EPO) has revoked an EU patent held by Impossible Foods, maker of the Impossible Burger. In the US, Impossible's fake meat products are manufactured with GMO yeast-derived soy leghemoglobin, a controversial ingredient that makes the fake meat look as if it's bleeding, like undercooked real meat, and that we have argued may not be safe to eat.

Following the EPO's decision, another fake meat company, Motif FoodWorks, has filed a suite of new petitions with the US Patent and Trademark Office challenging US patents held by Impossible Foods over the use of heme proteins (such as that present in soy leghemoglobin) in meat alternatives, as it defends itself against Impossible's accusations of patent infringement, according to Food Navigator USA.

Company is one of the first U.S.-based ingredient providers to verify its sustainable practices under rigorous global standard

ST. LOUIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Benson Hill, Inc. (NYSE: BHIL, the “Company” or “Benson Hill”), a food tech company unlocking the natural genetic diversity of plants, announced today that it became one of the first U.S.-based ingredient providers to achieve the international ProTerra Certification, a rigorous global standard that sets the bar for sustainable agricultural practices and labor practices as well as segregated non-GMO programs and more. Benson Hill also joins the respected ProTerra Network, a group of companies dedicated to sustainable practices and continuous improvement.

USDA Must Not Deregulate GMO American Chestnut Trees

“In any revolutionary area, and biotechnology is a revolutionary area, most of our current ideas are wrong. Then I ask you, what the hell is the rush to apply these ideas… we’re still at the very beginning of understanding what we’re doing. The rush to apply these ideas is absolutely dangerous, because we don’t have a clue what the long term impacts of our manipulations are going to be.” - Dr. David Suzuki, geneticist and educator

The USDA is accepting public comments on its plan to deregulate genetically engineered (GE/GMO) “Darling 58” American chestnut trees and allow for the tree to be planted in wild forests.

The Marine Stewardship Council, the Non-GMO Project, and Fairtrade America have joined forces to launch a campaign to promote the contribution of third-party certification labels on food products in ensuring sustainable and resilient food systems.

The “Little Labels, Big Impact” campaign will run through January 2023, MSC said in a press release.

The growing demand for non-GMO products is driving the growth of the market. The demand for non-GMO products is increasing, as they are healthier alternatives to GM food products. Consumers are willing to pay high prices for these products. Animal-derived produce from GM-fed animals is considered harmful to health and the environment. Moreover, there have been concerns regarding the use of GM crops and animal-derived produce, which has encouraged producers of eggs, meat, and dairy to switch to non-GMO feed. Hence, many leading vendors are switching to non-GMO products to meet the demand.

Over the past 30 years OCA and our allies across the world have fought hard against gene-spliced GMO foods and crops and the toxic pesticides and chemicals that always accompany them, exposing their dangers, limiting their market share, and in some countries bringing about mandatory bans (Mexico) and/or labeling and safety-testing. (USA and Europe)

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“‘Companies call these things ‘synthetic biology’ and ‘fermentation technology,’ but these foods are all just GMOs,’ said Michael Hansen, Senior Staff Scientist at Consumer Reports. ‘They are using terms people do not understand, so that people will not realize these are GMO ingredients.’”

A recent poll in the UK indicates that 60% of consumers do not want to eat GE lab meat.