GM Watch
A California Appellate Court has sided with the State of California and Center for Food Safety (CFS) in affirming that Monsanto’s glyphosate pesticide can be listed as a probable carcinogen under Proposition 65. Monsanto’s lawsuit challenged the 2015 announcement by California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) that it intended to list glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s herbicide, Roundup, under California’s landmark Proposition 65. Proposition 65 requires the State to publish a list of chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects, or other reproductive harm.
Plaintiffs in 2,400 lawsuits in the US are suing to hold Monsanto accountable for their cancers, which they believe were caused by exposure to the company’s Roundup herbicide. The plaintiffs are seeking financial settlements that could amount to billions of dollars – wiping out the $2.8 billion in revenue that Monsanto expects to make from Roundup this year alone. In San Francisco, US District Judge Vince Chhabria has been deciding whether or not scientific experts in these trials were using sound methods to reach their conclusions, and which experts could be called to testify during the upcoming federal trials.
More than 90 percent of pregnant women in an Indiana study had glyphosate in their urine, and higher concentrations were associated with earlier deliveries. This article from Reuters covers research reported by GMWatch a month previously.
The USDA has determined that a wheat cultivar that’s gene-edited for higher fibre content doesn’t need to undergo the deregulatory process for GMOs because it’s not a potential plant pest. Steve Mercer, vice president of communications for US Wheat Associates, an export organization, said the wheat is “not anywhere close to commercialisation”. GMWatch advises vigilance.
Hive-bound young honey bees are being poisoned by glyphosate weedkiller and insecticides gathered by their foraging hive mates, according to new research. The paper demonstrates that glyphosate and neonicotinoid insecticides adversely affect memory, taste and smell in young bees – the very senses and skills required by worker bees for nectar foraging.
A survey of human urine samples shows that exposure to potentially health-threatening levels of glyphosate has escalated over the past 20 years. Glyphosate use in the agricultural sector rose a massive 300-fold from 1974 to 2014 and nearly 67{5fc40a96f14c4a6aa4c2a32569b0a57dcc67c0b31eb04c341474283f11b6cdd2} of total agricultural glyphosate use in the US since 1974 occurred in the period 2005–2014, when GM crops became widespread. Effects of glyphosate exposure may include increased cancer and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Yet regulators are turning a blind eye, writes Prof David Schubert.
In Italy, the world’s largest pasta maker has cut back Canadian imports of durum wheat – a key ingredient in pasta – because of consumer concerns about the use of glyphosate herbicide.
EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström has reportedly confirmed to French EU parliamentarians that trade agreements such as CETA and Mercosur would remove the right of member states to introduce bans on glyphosate.