Agricultural Laws & Regulations

Law firms that led glyphosate-cancer litigation against Bayer want a ‘bigger slice’ of the record-breaking settlement
Plaintiffs’ firms that led the legal campaign against Bayer AG are fighting over $800 million in fees from the Roundup ...

Facing stiff GM crop restrictions, Mexican cotton farmers may import illegal biotech seeds
During 2020, cotton production fell [in Mexico, as only] one million bales were produced, 500 thousand less than in other ...

‘Green’ politics and consumer uncertainty keep GM crops outlawed in Europe. Will gene editing change the legal landscape?
Agronomy grad student Frederik Vilhelm Larsen, at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, wants to explore all the science that ...

New South Wales, Australia poised to lift GM crop cultivation ban in July, sparking debate between farmers and environmentalists
[New South Wales Agriculture Minister Adam] Marshall said [lifting the state’s GM crop ban on July 1 will open] the ...

Podcast: Sierra Club endorses biotech chestnut tree; GM salmon coming this April? Downside of genetic engineering
Historically a vocal opponent of genetically engineered crops, the Sierra Club has endorsed the release of a disease-resistant, genetically modified ...

Viewpoint: ‘No added hormones’? How food labels can be technically accurate but still misleading
Terms like 'GMO-free' and 'raised without hormones or antibiotics' are just some of the labels used on food products, and ...

How are genetically engineered crops regulated around the world?
By employing precise, efficient, yet affordable genome editing techniques, new genome edited crops are entering country regulatory schemes for commercialization. ...

China fines 8 biotechnology firms and research institutes for producing illegal GM seeds
[China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs has] found eight companies and research institutes that illegally produced or carried out ...

Viewpoint: FDA’s burdensome animal gene-editing rules hinder innovation. USDA takeover could spur progress
Over the last two months, USDA made two revolutionary moves regarding the regulation of genetically engineered (GE) animals: to take ...

GM, insect-resistant, Bt corn could reach Kenyan farms in 2021 — and may help double crop yields
The TELA Bt maize variety if adopted can help [Kenyan] farmers double their yields. Speaking [February 22] during an open ...

Machetes, not glyphosate: Mexican president tells farmers to manually remove weeds following herbicide restrictions
[Mexican] President Andrés Manuel López Obrador …. proposed the use of machetes to remove weeds from crops instead of using ...

Gene editing could boost UK’s virus-plagued sugar beet industry, country’s agriculture minister says
[British farming and environment minister George] Eustice told the annual conference of the National Farmers Union [on February 23] that ...

GMO salmon two months from introduction: AquaBounty fights anti-biotechnology misinformation as it gears up for April launch of fast-growing, sustainable AquAdvantage salmon
AquaBounty's genetically engineered, fast-growing salmon could be sold at US restaurants and grocery stores as soon as this April. The ...

Senate confirms Obama Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to head USDA again
The Senate confirmed Tom Vilsack as U.S. Agriculture Secretary, opening the way for the Biden administration to move forward with ...

Viewpoint: Eco-hypocrisy—Mexico bans GM corn and glyphosate to promote sustainability while subsidizing fossil fuels
Imagine for a moment that the US government banned smart phones and tablets and forced everyone to use home telephones ...

Anti-GMO Europe wants to fight climate change. Will it approve the eco-friendly (but GM) Impossible Burger?
Impossible Foods’ efforts to enter the European market have faced a 15-month-long battle over the key ingredient that gives its ...

Peru extends GM crop cultivation ban to ‘investigate’ biotechnology’s impact on biodiversity — which government says will take until 2035
The Peruvian Congress approved a moratorium that prohibits the entry of Living Modified Organisms (transgenic) for cultivation or breeding purposes ...

Viewpoint: Challenging organic myths — Big Ag doesn’t ‘control the food supply’ with patented GMO seeds, patented seeds are planted on organic farms, too
GMO critics demonize the concept of seed patents, equating it with 'Big Ag' and what they see as a takeover ...

Farm fraud: Consumers spend billions on food that might not be organic
Organic food sales are growing rapidly, with an estimated worth of $272.18 billion by 2027. The premium prices paid for ‘organics’ ...

Viewpoint: Giving up hamburgers won’t stop climate change
Climate change is the biggest challenge of our lifetime, which we must address with urgency, but swapping out a hamburger ...

Cuba establishes expert commission to ensure safe, sustainable use of GM crops
The National Commission for the Use of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) in Cuban agriculture was established. The head of CITMA ...

EU’s refusal to permit GMO crops led to millions of tons of additional CO2, scientists reveal
Europe’s refusal to permit its farmers to cultivate genetically engineered (GE) crops led to the avoidable emission of millions of ...

Podcast: ‘Greedy’ factory farms? Milk without cows; Vaccine for melanoma
Farms are larger today than ever before, but it's not because they're "greedy factory farms." Milk of the future might ...

Developing countries grow more GM crops than their industrial counterparts
Developing countries continued to plant more biotech crops in 2019, according to the ISAAA report on the Global Status of Commercialized ...

Viewpoint: FDA took 24 years to approve fast-growing GM salmon. Let’s hope lab-made meat, dairy hit the market sooner
[Numerous] startups are pursuing the production of cultured meats including Israel-based Future Meat Technologies and Dutch companies Meatable and Mosa ...

Europe regulates gene-edited crops as GMOs. Will it ever have the tools to detect them?
To enforce GMO restrictions, EU member states first need a way to detect GMOs. So in 2002, the EU set ...

Gene-edited crops may be coming to Europe—if scientists can avoid the PR mistakes of the GMO debate
Once the UK left the EU, it would be free to invest in gene editing of crops and livestock to “feed ...

Farmer lawsuits could block Mexico’s proposed glyphosate weedkiller and GMO crop bans
The Mexican government’s plan to stop importing genetically modified (GMO) corn as well as the widely-used herbicide glyphosate will likely ...