The latest on the email scandal revealing close ties between industry and public university professors and the EPA’s failure to protect the bees.
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With farmers facing corn rootworm resistance in at least 13 states, the Environmental Protection Agency has proposed a framework earlier in the year to improve the corn rootworm resistance management program. 
A Federal judge upholds GMO labeling law as constitutional setting up an appeal. Also questioned the ‘natural’ labeling of products with GE ingredients. 
Ticking time bomb. End of modern medicine. Urgent danger. This is how the world sees the problem of antibiotic resistance, but in the United States, in part due to politics of the day, with abundant backing from lobbyists, crucial regulations are missing despite the scientific alarms. 
The Economic Research Service, an arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in its second report, Genetically Engineered Crops in the United States, downplayed the impact of glyphosate resistance and gave Bt crops the kid gloves treatment. Study’s author states that the use of neonics is threatening the very infrastructure which enables it, imperilling the pollinators, habitat engineers and natural pest controllers at the heart of a functioning ecosystem. 
A recent number crunching report by the Electronic Research Service (ERS) arm of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) gives the reader an eye full of charts, graphs and statistics but not the full picture of Genetically Engineered Crops in the U.S. 
Many believe that the new FDA guidelines will likely fail to change how antibiotics are used in food animals and will not stem the public health crisis of increasing antibiotic resistance. 
The Supreme Court’s decision not to hear the case means that the Farmers case will not be reinstated nor decided on its merits and the decisions from the Court of Appeals stands. 
Even if horrific images and stories about CAFOs do not tug at your heart-strings, and you close your eyes at the externalized costs of CAFOs and believe that veganism is something reserved for denizens of Los Angeles, New York and Portland, it is no longer possible to ignore how what happens out of sight in CAFOs impacts human health. 
There is no scientific consensus that GM crops are safe, especially when the views of the scientific community independent of the GM crop development industry are taken into account. Is “cutting-edge” biotechnology taking American agriculture backwards into a more toxic past? 
The appeals court in the Osgata matter held that Monsanto is legally bound not to sue farmers or sellers of seeds that are inadvertently contaminated with up to one percent of seeds carrying Monsanto’s patented traits. 
Legislation proposed in New York would require labeling of food or food products that contain a genetically modified material. With a deadline for a vote looming, can New Yorkers keep the bill alive? 
The European Commission recently said it will ban three neonicotinoids for the next two years citing “acute high risks” to bees associated with this pesticide. The EPA only recommends more tests. 
What has the existing patent system in agriculture yielded? Seed industry consolidation, increased seed prices, loss of biodiversity, and the stifling of independent research and scientific inquiry. The latest about intellectual property in agriculture. 
Cholesterol decreasing juice, anti-cancer green tea, and cherries as James-Bond agents to neutralize cancer — believable or not? FDA’s confusing food labeling rules are criticized for allowing many companies to make misleading claims on food labels. 
Calling antibiotic resistance in the population a “major public health crisis,” Rep. Slaughter introduced legislation to prohibit the use of antibiotics for sub-therapeutic purposes in food animals. 
Another study finds inert ingredients in glyphosate formulations to be toxic human cells, questioning regulators’ focus on the active ingredient during the risk assessment process. 
One of the causes of antibiotic resistance in humans is the overuse of antibiotics on industrial animal farms. Despite the urgent public health crisis, neither the FDA nor lawmakers have stemmed the overuse of such important medicines for purposes of growth and disease prevention, not treatment. 
In a case of national prominence, farmers, seed selling businesses and agricultural organizations are fighting for their right to seek legal protection from accusations of patent infringement by the agri-giant Monsanto should they become contaminated by Monsanto’s GMO seed. 
European Food Safety Authority’s analysis of neonicotinioids acknowledged a number of serious risks to bees associated with their use. The agency recommended that, among other things, these systemic pesticides be only used on crops not attractive to honey bees. Food and supplement makers complain they are under siege all the while making deceptive health claims and doing little to improve nutrition. The Center for Science in the Public Interest has been behind many of the lawsuits over unsubstantiated and misleading labeling. 
A recent study found that a combination of two pesticides impairs the natural foraging behavior of bumblebees, increases worker mortality as well as increases the propensity of bumblebee colonies to fail. |
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