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25 Sep

Seed monopolies: Who controls the world's food supply? dw.com/en/agriculture… Seed laws criminalizing farmers for using diverse crops that stand a better chance of adapting to climate change are threatening food security

@Bayer

For thousands of years of human agriculture, seeds were freely exchanged and shared. All that changed in the 1990s when laws were introduced to protect new #GMO crops. Today, 4 corporations — @Bayer, Corteva, ChemChina and Limagrain — control more than 50% of the world's seeds.

@Bayer

@Bayer Most countries only allow patents—exclusive ownership rights that weren't originally created with living organisms in mind—on #GMO seeds. But other plant varieties can also be strictly controlled by another type of intellectual property legislation called Plant Variety Protection

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@GMWatch

6 Aug

Study finds link between glyphosate exposure and shorter pregnancy length, which can increase babies' risk of long-term health problems ehn.org/study-finds-li… Confirms earlier research which also found shorter pregnancies more likely

Latest study follows 2 others on glyphosate & pregnancy length, including 1 in Indiana that found women with higher #glyphosate levels were more likely to have shorter pregnancies, which can increase the risk of infant mortality, long-term health challenges & intellectual delays.

The study raises questions about potential effects of even low-dose exposures to glyphosate among the general population, since the study found shorter pregnancies were linked to #glyphosate levels in the women's bodies that were well below current US regulatory thresholds.

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@GMWatch

27 Jul

@careygillam

Brilliant interview with @careygillam on the nuts & bolts of agriculture & pesticide disinformation disinformationchronicle.substack.com/p/a-candid-con… Carey's just been blocked by corporate sponsors of a big ag media event from talking to fellow journalists about how to investigate stories using FOIA

@careygillam

@careygillam Carey says corporate money is at play in journalism conferences and gives example of how @Bayer—in exchange for v generous donations—positioned itself to not just set agendas for journalistic conferences but get a say in what kind of stories are applauded and promoted via awards.

@careygillam

@careygillam @Bayer Carey & @thackerpd also discuss the evidence of Monsanto's targeting of journalists & scientists via front groups & other third parties. One group targeting Carey et al was told, “The key will be keeping #Monsanto in the background so as not to harm the credibility of the info.”

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@GMWatch

21 Jul

New York Times Magazine publishes false and misleading statements in pro-GMO fairytale gmwatch.org/en/news/latest… And the resurrected #GMO purple tomato takes centre stage

@NYTmag

To conjure up its fairytale @NYTmag ignores much of the reality of GMO crops. As @Nathan_Donley notes, there's only passing mention of #Monsanto et al & the destruction caused by their herbicide-promoting GMO crops, grown on hundreds of millions of acres—never mind seed patenting

@NYTmag

@NYTmag @Nathan_Donley .@NYTmag also makes no mention of #dicamba-tolerant GMO crops. "How can you have a serious discussion about genetic engineering and ignore the livelihoods and habitats that have been irreversibly destroyed throughout the Midwest and South in the last 5 years?" asks @Nathan_Donley

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@GMWatch

15 Apr

The future of agricultural gene editing: More herbicide-tolerant crops sooner gmwatch.org/en/news/latest… Scientists look forward to crops that can be sprayed with multiple herbicides and evade risk assessment! #NewGMO

1st generation GMO crops were supposed to cut pesticide use. They didn't. In fact 87% of current GMO crops are engineered for herbicide tolerance. Now GMO promoters claim gene editing will save us from pesticide use. But a new paper spells out why it'll be *even more* of the same

If govts deregulate gene edited crops, then they can be developed faster & more profitably, and be easily hidden from consumers. This will help more *multi*-herbicide tolerant crops hit the market "years earlier", scientists say in a new paper. And they think that's a good thing!

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@GMWatch

17 Mar

https://twitter.com/GMWatch/status/1371481157267771393

A key reason gene editing shouldn't be deregulated is all the hype about its precision & accuracy is BS. Even Harvard's George Church calls #CRISPR "a blunt axe". He says, "it's called editing, I think it's really genome vandalism." Yet the Govt thinks it needs no safety checks!

https://twitter.com/GMWatch/status/1371481157267771393

More & more studies in human, animal & plant cells show gene editing gives rise to numerous genetic errors (aka unintended mutations—DNA damage) at both off-target sites & on-target (at the desired editing site). These include large deletions, insertions & rearrangements of DNA.

A commentary in the journal Nature noted that a suite of studies had found #CRISPR gene-editing in human embryos "wreaks chromosomal mayhem". This included large, unwanted changes to the genome that the journal said could be missed in many experiments nature.com/articles/d4158… #gmo

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