As state regulators consider field trials, scientists and advocates point to potential risks, lack of public consultation.

The US Environmental Protection Agency’s decision last week to allow the release of billions of genetically engineered mosquitoes in California and Florida has several environmental and public health groups worried about the potential impacts of the experimental releases on public health and the environment.

The EPA move follows last year’s pilot field trial in the Florida Keys where, starting April 2021, the British biotechnology company Oxitec and the Florida Keys Mosquito Control released half a billion of these transgenic mosquitoes.

Sale marks latest step by the German pharmaceutical company to lower debt as it continues to defend legal claims in the U.S.

Bayer has been seeking to lower debt since its big bet on agriculture with its $63 billion acquisition of Monsanto in 2018 turned sour.

BERLIN—Bayer AG agreed to sell its pest-control unit to private-equity firm Cinven for $2.6 billion, as the German chemical and drug giant seeks to focus on its core agricultural portfolio and reduce debt.

Today, Center for Food Safety (CFS) filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for unlawfully withholding records regarding FDA's environmental assessment of genetically engineered (GE) salmon and a planned Ohio-based production facility—a major expansion from current capacity. The FOIA lawsuit comes on the heels of CFS and allies' successful lawsuit holding FDA's approval of GE salmon unlawful. FDA's approval marked the first time any government in the world had approved a GE animal as food.

Save Our Seeds Programme is a series of training meetings for young activists, educators, artists, local and national leaders of formal organizations and informal movements, experienced campaigners, agroecological farmers, breeders, scientists, philosophers and seed savers.

The programme will be divided into two parts – the public-open part, streamed online for a wider public and a closed part – an online workshop programme for our collective of activists

The collective will consist of:

a) a group of around 20 MENTORS (experienced activists, lecturers, scientists, agroecology and organic farming practitioners, seed savers, educators, philosophers and campaigners) from different EU countries,

b) a group of 20-30 young (16-30 years old) activists, community leaders, artists and campaigners, interested in agroecological issues and taking action.

The young activists interested in joining the collective will undergo an application process. All EU nationals between 16 and 30 years can apply.

Deadline: 30.03.2022

EU Commission: Eggs from CRISPR/Cas hens will not be risk assessed or labelled

4 March 2022 / Eggs and laying hens originating from transgenic hens could be marketed in the EU without these having to undergo an approval process, and without being labelled. This is the conclusion that can be drawn from a letter sent by the EU Commission to the German Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) in July 2021. The letter now was made public after a request from the German Union of Peasant Farmers (AbL).

This factsheet provides an overview of the intellectual property issues surrounding the new genetic engineering (genetic modification or GM) techniques of genome editing (commonly called gene editing), with a focus on CRISPR-Cas9.

Why conservation organisations across the world need to speak up!

Most people in the EU – including civil society organisations – are opposed to genetically manipulating food crops but unaware that the scope of genetic engineering projects has shifted radically in the past decade. With the advent of CRISPR/Cas genetic engineering has been brought to a new level while the previously used ‘gene guns’ that enabled for example Monsantos pesticide resistant corn have become quite outdated. With CRISPR many more species – and not only domesticated ones – can be genetically modified in much more targeted and profound way.

Genetic engineering in conservation?

Greenpeace challenged President Emmanuel Macron, on Sunday, the day after his visit to the Salon de l’Agriculture, on his positions in favor of new genomic editing techniques for plants which, according to the association, produce “new GMOs”.

A handful of activists first climbed the arch which marks the entrance to the Parc des Expositions at the Porte de Versailles to deploy a banner “For sustainable agriculture, no to new GMOs”, before activating smoke bombs from green color, noted an AFP journalist.

Contents:

From the Editors: Legal Issues

Group Lawsuit Filed Against TEPCO by Young People with Thyroid Cancer

Public Hearing on Genome-Edited Foods in Japan

Status of Genome-Edited Fish and Consumers Union of Japan (CUJ) Activities

Opinion on the Japanese Government’s Draft Guidelines on Non-use Labeling of Food Additives

For years, environmental groups in numerous countries have warned about the potential escape of genetically engineered animals into the wild. Now it has happened. Researchers in Brazil have published a paper documenting the escape and successful reproduction of genetically engineered (genetically modified or GM) aquarium fish in the wild. The fish, which contains a gene from the jellyfish family to make them fluorescent, has unknown consequences for freshwater systems in Brazil. This is the first documented case of a genetically engineered animal breeding in the wild.

Canada was one of the first countries to approve the sale of Glofish (trademark name) and likewise, a genetically engineered salmon now being grown in Prince Edward Island (PEI), Canada. In 2021, the conservation group Nature Canada warned the Canadian Government about Glofish escaping.