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25.01.2022 Our New Zealand colleagues at GE-free NZ called for their own Food Authority, to replace the cross-Tasman food regulator FSANZ. It promotes trade and commerce between NZ and Australia, compromising its focus on food safety and public health. The NZ Government has only one vote among nine on the Food Ministerial Forum that makes food laws and policies for both countries. Predictably, the globalised food and beverage industry went ballistic over the rational proposal. https://www.foodnavigator-asia.com//Stupid-and-ideological

25.01.2022 Independent scientists and experts, doctors, farmers and civil society groups join the National Farmers Federation and Animal Medicines Australia in rejecting the Government’s Review of Agricultural and Veterinary (AgVet) Chemicals Regulation. The Panel proposes a double standard. They propose to fast track new chemicals into Australia, when approved overseas, without assessing Australia’s unique environment and public health needs but also refuses to advocate for the de-registration of the many toxic chemicals that are already banned or restricted abroad. https://www.farmonline.com.au//attempt-to-reduce-agvet-ch/ The community's Consensus Statement: https://ntn.org.au//Consensus-statement-Agvet-Review-Failu

25.01.2022 Impossible Foods claims its lab-made vegan burgers use 87% less water, 96% less land, 89% fewer greenhouse-gases, and 92% less water pollutants, than a US feedlot beef burger. Beyond Meat makes similar claims. But these claims emphasize vegan product strengths over beef and ignore their downsides such as soil carbon depletion and deforestation. https://www.abc.net.au//can-a-vegan-diet-save-the/11398682 This new report stresses how important soils are in a transition to sustainable agriculture and food. We must do better if we hope to cope with climate change. https://www.ipcc.ch/srccl/

25.01.2022 Agrochemical and pesticide pollutants can disrupt ecosystems and harm human health, a new Uni of Sydney research paper in Nature Geoscience finds. Reduced pesticide pollution is crucial to protecting the biodiversity that maintains soil health and functions, contributing to food security. https://cosmosmagazine.com//pesticides-put-two-thirds-of-/

24.01.2022 The UN Year of Fruits and Vegetables is 2021. But meanwhile, FSANZ is set to allow ALL Australian fresh fruits and veggies to be irradiated with the equivalent of 10 million X-rays, to sterilise fruit fly larvae. This will pre-cook produce but it will still appear fresh, compromise its nutritional value, and leave unsafe residues. Proposed labels are weak and misleading. Send your say to [email protected] https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/12/1080492 Also see. https://www.foodstandards.gov.au//applica/Pages/A1193.aspx

24.01.2022 White supremacist ideology, on the rise in Europe, North America and Australia, appeals to people who claim membership of a genetically pure race. However, this genetic expert confirms that science "does not support the idea of pure races with ancient origins. ... The evidence reveals a history of ongoing genetic mingling, due to interbreeding between different populations and even species. Humans from different groups had children together, and even with Neanderthals and members of other now-extinct hominin species. The idea of a pure white race has no basis in genetics." https://theconversation.com/white-supremacists-believe-in-g

23.01.2022 Pfizer and BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine is produced using Synthetic Biology, to create GM messenger RNA (mRNA). The challenges are huge, despite upbeat reports from phase 3 trials, as: no regulators have ever approved an mRNA product before; 2 doses, three weeks apart, would be required for such a vaccine to work; and, the drug must be stored at minus 80 degrees Celcius, but most of the world does not have such cold storage widely available. https://www.statnews.com//covid-19-vaccine-from-pfizer-an/

22.01.2022 New GM research aims to turn animals into "super surrogates" using new CRISPR genetic engineering to make males that produce the sperm of other males. But an Australian researcher says conventional breeding, artificial insemination or even cloning might be more cost-effective, and claims some "moral and ethical concerns that people have are not applicable to what we've done with gene editing." https://www.abc.net.au//super-surrogates-sperm-tr/12693394

22.01.2022 Live at 2am in Eastern Australia but worth watching online afterwards. Seed and chemical giants, and life scientists claim that gee-whizz new GM methods have answers to everything, including hunger, disease, and even death. So we must ask them, what were your questions?

21.01.2022 Get pork off your fork!! The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved GM pigs for food and organ transplants to humans. They are only the second GM animal to be approved for food, after GM salmon in 2015. The pigs are engineered to eliminate alpha-gal, a sugar found in pigs that can cause allergic reactions. https://www.theguardian.com//us-fda-declares-genetically-m

20.01.2022 The National Toxics Network, GeneEthics, scientists, farmers and other groups have issued a Consensus Statement on the review of Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals regulation. The panel's proposals would fast track new chemicals into Australia, without their impacts on our unique environments, farm safety, and residues in food being assessed. Nor would the many chemicals banned overseas but still registered here be reviewed. Links to the Network's Consensus Statement and your opportunity to also endorse the statement are both here. https://www.farmonline.com.au//concerns-over-proposed-agv/

20.01.2022 Unless agriculture and the food industry are rapidly transformed to Regenerative Farming systems, changing what people eat and how it is produced, the world faces widespread ecosystem and biodiversity loss very soon. "We need to change what we eat and how it is produced if we are going to save wildlife on a global scale, syas the lead researcher. https://www.theguardian.com//global-food-industry-to-drive

20.01.2022 To attempt the repair of a gene thought to cause blindness, scientists used a CRISPR DNA-cutting machine that unintentionally deleted large parts or entire chromosomes in human embryos, a study in the journal Cell https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(20)31389-1 reports. Story https://nypost.com//crispr-gene-editing-mistake-results-i/

18.01.2022 This four part seminar series entitled "Sustainable agriculture versus corporate greed" offers a real opportunity for new ideas and prespectives. Register to Zoom, starting this Thursday.

18.01.2022 This agronomist concedes the days of farmer dependence on spraying Roundup and other agrichemicals are numbered. He proposes a farm backup plan, with a mix of a dozen non-chemical weed and pest management practices. So why not adopt Regenerative Agricultural systems now? https://www.graincentral.com//defend-the-use-of-glyphosat/

17.01.2022 Canola prices are close to record-highs, with GM varieties still discounted $30-45/tonne, vs non-GM. Western Australian non-GM canola is up 15% and GM is 6% higher than last year, due to strong Chinese demand and weak European and Canadian production. https://www.fool.com.au//will-aussie-agricultural-commodi/

17.01.2022 Gene 'therapy' has been promoted for 30 years as a way to effectively treat genetically inherited diseases - hemophilia, sickle cell anemia, etc, by replacing a patient’s defective genes with healthy ones. But biotechnology still can’t dodge the immune response that destroys the new gene and the viruses carrying it, and induces life-threatening, widespread, inflammation. These researchers now say CRISPR may turn off such immune rejections. What do you think? https://theconversation.com/crispr-can-help-combat-the-trou Their paper. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41556-020-0563-3

16.01.2022 Watch ABC TV's Australian Story showcase a Regenerative Farming family, a model of sustainable food and fiber production, for the future. Farmer and author Charles Massy points out that "Up to 90% of your costs (chemicals, fertiliser, seed) are stripped down straight away. Regenerative agriculture has some of the best solutions to solving a lot of our planetary ills," climate change, salinity and a drying continent. https://www.abc.net.au//charlie-massy-regenerativ/12438352

15.01.2022 BASF recently became a big 'owner' of vegetable seed, buying over 2,500 varieties of 24 crops from Bayer/Monsanto and now sends threats to small US seed companies. When will it start in Australia? Seed should continue to be a public resource as it was developed over thousands of years as part of our global commons. But it was biopirated and is now one of the most privatized and monopolised resources on the planet, through intellectual property (IP) claims and market concentration. Just four transnationals control more than 60% of the global seed supply. https://civileats.com//op-ed-how-seed-patents-threaten-sm/

15.01.2022 Trump talked up eugenics and racism at a rally, praising his mostly white audience with You have good genes, you know that, right? You have good genes. A lot of it is about the genes, isn’t it, don’t you believe?. https://www.vox.com//trump-bemidji-fayetteville-rallies-rb The USA and Australia in the early 1900s, had sordid social movements and 'science' also misusing genetics and heredity to improve humans, through forced sterilisation and selective breeding, that the Nazis then copied. https://www.nature.com//america-s-hidden-history-the-euge/

14.01.2022 No wonder farmers and rural communities voted for Trump as he bought their votes! US Dept of Agriculture’s payments to Big Ag (esp. GM soy and corn for feedlot animals and biofuels) are now 36% of net farm income, up from 22% in 2018/2019, and 10% pre-Trump. https://www.washingtonpost.com//trumps-farmer-bailout-has/

14.01.2022 US President-elect Joe Biden has chosen Tom Vilsack to serve again as Secretary of Agriculture. In the same role during Obama's reign, Visack was dubbed "Mr Monsanto" for doing the agrichemical and GM industry's bidding. Since leaving the USDA job in 2016, Vilsack has served Big Dairy as a marketing executive. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders had backed Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio), an expert on hunger policy and veteran of the House Agriculture Committee, for the top job. https://www.motherjones.com//biden-vilsack-usda-agricultu/

14.01.2022 ABC podcast. An infectious bee disease, American foulbrood, can kill entire hives. It is now all over Australia and can't be eradicated. https://www.abc.net.au//american-foulbrood-found-/12693768

14.01.2022 Having your harvest discounted while others are paid top dollar is a huge blow for farmers. Yet big discounts could be the fate of South Australian growers who grow Roundup-tolerant GM canola. https://www.ypct.com.au//24270-your-view-paying-a-premium-

13.01.2022 Research on left/right handedness in twins and families shows most of the variation is non-genetic, more training and environment when we learn early motor skills. However, genetics does play a complex role, with 41 regions of the genome related to left handedness and 7 more to being ambidextrous. Many parts of hand preference lie between our genes, in so-called junk DNA which is not yet understood. About 88% of people favour their right hand, 10% their left, and 2% report either. https://theconversation.com/theres-no-single-gene-for-left-

12.01.2022 Humans are hopeless managers of global ecosystems and we are designing our own species' demise. Some Canadian scientists spruik GM trees as a climate change solution, but bigger and older trees are better at storing carbon. https://www.cbc.ca//genetic-modification-trees-climage-cha

09.01.2022 Oxitec claims its latest 'invention' is not like its GM gene drive technology in mosquitoes, where a lethal gene drives an insect species to extinction. Here a gene encodes a destructive protein in the insects eggs and the lethal effect will last just a few generations, Oxitec claims. Field trials are on in Brazil. If caterpillar numbers fall sharply, what other insect will fill the empty ecological niche that is created? https://www.wired.com//can-a-genetically-modified-bug-com/

09.01.2022 Environment and public health groups, including GeneEthics, fiercely oppose the relaxation of regulations on agricultural and veterinary chemicals in Australia as they pose unacceptable hazards to public health and safety. A review panel proposes that overseas approvals of new chemicals be used to fast-track registration here, ignoring Australia's unique environments. Yet they refused to consider foreign pesticide bans as a trigger for de-registration here. https://www.theguardian.com//plan-to-relax-australian-rule

08.01.2022 Washington state golf pro Gary Lindeblad sprayed Roundup for decades from the 1970s and now has non-Hogkin's Lymphoma. It was avoidable, he says, as Monsanto knew the cancer risk for decades. He seeks a jury trial and compensation for pain, suffering, emotional distress, loss of enjoyment of life, and other noneconomic damages. https://medtruth.com//legal-develop/golf-pro-roundup-suit/

08.01.2022 When SA’s Primary Industries Minister David Basham lifted the state’s GM crop moratorium, he "said 'no' to the hardworking, successful wine makers and grape growers of McLaren Vale's world-class wine regions," says Onkaparinga Mayor Erin Thompson. Her council estimates that McLaren Vale grape growers stand to lose up to $20.8 million pa. Wine importer statements from South Korea, China, Sweden, the UK, Finland and Hong Kong, say ending the region's GM-free status will severely damage McLaren Vale's excellent wine reputation. https://www.abc.net.au//barossa-and-mclaren-vale-/12882078

08.01.2022 Bayer's losses were $3 billion in the third quarter of 2020. The company's effort to get plaintiffs to accept roughly $10 billion for their non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, as a result of Roundup herbicide exposure, are receding. A court directed deadline to settle outstanding lawsuits passed. So the judge will resume federal trials on 1,861 of the 3,787 outstanding federal cases not covered by the failed negotiation. https://www.hpj.com//article_8748ed94-2604-11eb-b3ba-c3826

07.01.2022 Please say "NO!" by November 12, 2020. Food Standards Australia NZ (FSANZ) is set to approve GM corn line DP23211. Dow's application is for food made from corn that is herbicide-tolerant (enables over-the-top glufosinate spraying without harming the crop) and the corn also makes its own insect-toxins. See A1202 docs at: https://www.foodstandards.gov.au//applica/Pages/A1202.aspx

06.01.2022 Belgium’s Superior Health Council calls for a glyphosate-based-herbicide (Roundup) phase out before December 2022. Glyphosate has a complex toxic profile, including cancer (non-Hodgkins Lymphoma), is an endocrine disruptor, affects human and animal intestinal microbiomes, and harms pollinators. Good riddance. https://sustainablepulse.com//belgiums-superior-health-co/

06.01.2022 Join the RALLY at Minister Basham's electorate office, 71 Victoria Street, Victor Harbor, SA, Noon, Saturday November 7. Defend democracy and call on the Minister to honour all eleven Council applications for GM-free Crop Zones. Previous Primary Industries Minister Leon Bignell is among the speakers. Also please ask Premier Steven Marshall to designate all the Councils as GM-free. Contact him at: E: T: 08 8429 3232 Facebook: @StevenMarshallMP and Twitter

04.01.2022 Celebrate the long history of global GM-free activism and resistance. In 1999, activists destroyed a field trial crop of GM maize on a farm in Norfolk UK. All 28 defendants were finally acquitted of theft and criminal damage charges, on September 20, 2000, after two trials. The UK and most of Europe remain GM-free. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-norfolk-54162239

03.01.2022 Australian canola has a competitive advantage over its Canadian rival in EU markets. A large portion of our exports are non-GM canola, which earns a price premium from European biodiesel makers as the meal can be sold to EU dairies that want non-GM feed ingredients. Canada now also grows about one million tonnes of non-GM canola annually, most for domestic sale, a big change from ~100% GM just 4 years ago. https://www.producer.com//canadian-canola-gets-competitio/

02.01.2022 Thailand banned Roundup last year but reversed its decision under extreme US government pressure. Emails just released under Freedom of Information show that Bayer scripted the US objection. Had Thailand's ban remained, the level of Roundup residues allowed in imported foods would probably have been zero, Bayer warned. https://sustainablepulse.com//thailands-reversal-on-glyph/

01.01.2022 Two-thirds of the world's land is turning to desert and chemical/GM farming is part of the problem. Kiss the Ground, a new documentary on Netflix, shows how regenerating crop and ranch lands is an effective way to clean waterways, halt desertification, and draw carbon out of the atmosphere and store it in the Earth - a crucial step towards halting climate change. https://civileats.com//new-soil-documentary-promises-a-po/ Watch the movie trailer. https://www.youtube.com/watch and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2W8dKdgGhc

01.01.2022 Please sign the petition for a global ban on 'gain-of-function' research. It deliberately makes pathogens more virulent, to study how they are enabled to more easily cross into humans from animals. We call for an inquiry into all Level 4 labs world-wide (including biowarfare labs), not just those in Wuhan that PM Morrison and the WHO want to investigate as a possible source of COVID 19. https://advocacy.organicconsumers.org/page/18957/petition/1 Australia's own high-containment facility near Geelong, Victoria, does "scientific research into the most dangerous infectious agents in the world." The public has a right to know the details of what goes on there. https://www.csiro.au/en/Research/Facilities/ACDP

01.01.2022 Ultra-processed foods use cheap, low nutrition, often GM, ingredients - starches, vege oils, fat, salt and sugars with fake colours, flavours and emulsifiers to make the sludge look, smell and taste ok. Such so-called foods wreck health, yet people eat more than before, driven by food addictions, poverty and global Big Food's aggressive marketing and lobbying in ever more places. Some Latin American countries are calling a halt on junk foods. so should we. https://theconversation.com/the-rise-of-ultra-processed-foo Research paper https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/12/7/1955