General

Pesticides associated to genetically modified foods (PAGMF), are engineered to tolerate herbicides such as
glyphosate (GLYP) and gluphosinate (GLUF) or insecticides such as the bacterial toxin bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). The aim of this study was to evaluate the correlation between maternal and fetal exposure, and to determine exposure levels of GLYP and its metabolite aminomethylphosphoric acid (AMPA), GLUF and its metabolite 3-methylphosphinicopropionic acid (3-MPPA) and Cry1Ab protein (a Bt toxin) in Eastern Townships of Quebec, Canada. Blood of thirty pregnant women (PW) and thirty-nine nonpregnant women (NPW) were studied. Serum GLYP and GLUF were detected in NPW and not detected in PW. Serum 3-MPPA and CryAb1 toxin were detected in PW, their fetuses and NPW.This is the first study to reveal the presence of circulating PAGMF in women with and without pregnancy.

Neonicotinoids aren't just used in agriculture -- unbeknownst to consumers, many “bee friendly” garden plants sold at home garden centers have been pre-treated with these bee killing pesticides which can contaminate their gardens and keep harming bees and other pollinators for months to years. A new, first-of-its-kind pilot study by Friends of the Earth-US and Pesticide Research Institute has found 54% of common garden plants purchased at top retailers including Lowes and Home Depot contained neonicotinoid pesticides, which studies show can harm or kill bees and other pollinators, with no warning to consumers.

GE plants and animals are created using horizontal gene transfer (also called horizontal inheritance), as contrasted with vertical gene transfer, which is the mechanism in natural reproduction. Vertical gene transfer, or vertical inheritance, is the transmission of genes from the parent generation to offspring via sexual or asexual reproduction, i.e., breeding a male and female from one species. By contrast, horizontal gene transfer involves injecting a gene from one species into a completely different species, which yields unexpected and often unpredictable results. Proponents of GM crops assume they can apply the principles of vertical inheritance to horizontal inheritance, but according to Dr. David Suzuki, an award-winning geneticist, this assumption is flawed in just about every possible way and is “just lousy science.” Genes don’t function in a vacuum — they act in the context of the entire genome. Whole sets of genes are turned on and off in order to arrive at a particular organism, and the entire orchestration is an activated genome. It’s a dangerous mistake to assume a gene’s traits are expressed properly, regardless of where they’re inserted. The safety of genetically modified food is based only on a hypothesis, and this hypothesis is already being proven wrong.

This misunderstanding is the “one gene, one protein” hypothesis from 70 years ago, which stated that each gene codes for a single protein. However, the Human Genome project completed in 2002 failed dramatically to identify one gene for every one protein in the human body, forcing researchers to look to epigenetic factors — namely, “factors beyond the control of the gene” – to explain how organisms are formed, and how they work. According to Thierry Vrain, a former research scientist for Agriculture Canada: “Genetic engineering is 40 years old. It is based on the naive understanding of the genome based on the One Gene – one protein hypothesis of 70 years ago, that each gene codes for a single protein. The Human Genome project completed in 2002 showed that this hypothesis is wrong. The whole paradigm of the genetic engineering technology is based on a misunderstanding. Every scientist now learns that any gene can give more than one protein and that inserting a gene anywhere in a plant eventually creates rogue proteins. Some of these proteins are obviously allergenic or toxic.”

In 2009, the American Academy of Environmental Medicine called for a moratorium on genetically modified foods, and said that long-term independent studies must be conducted, stating: “Several animal studies indicate serious health risks associated with GM food, including infertility, immune problems, accelerated aging, insulin regulation, and changes in major organs and the gastrointestinal system. …There is more than a casual association between GM foods and adverse health effects. There is causation…” Despite this sound warning, GM foods continue to be added to the US food supply with no warning to the Americans buying and eating this food. Genetic manipulation of crops, and more recently food animals, is a dangerous game that has repeatedly revealed that assumptions about how genetic alterations work and the effects they have on animals and humans who consume such foods are deeply flawed and incomplete. Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant claims genetically engineered crops are “the most-tested food product that the world has ever seen.”

The State of Nature, a report published in May by a coalition of environmental charities, found that more than half our wildlife species are in decline. "We are heading for Armageddon in terms of nature. We are faced with a nightmare of no nature in large parts of southern England," says Mark Cocker, author of Birds and People, a monumental new account of the role birds play in human life. "The filigree of our lives, the things that make it fantastic – silver-washed fritillaries, nightingales, dunlin, water voles chomping away at the edge of the pool – are disappearing. We are faced with the most appalling loss." Cocker's passion echoes a rollickingly fierce speech to the Welsh assembly earlier this summer by Iolo Williams, the RSPB officer turned Springwatch presenter, which is still being passed around and debated among naturalists. In it, Williams recalled his childhood by the Vyrnwy river, currently imperilled by proposals for pylons and infrastructure to service vast wind farms. The Mid Wales countryside may still appear glorious but, according to Williams, it is bereft: water voles, trout, curlew and cuckoos are gone; so, too, are insects and hay meadows (Wales has lost 99% of its hay meadows since the second world war). On the moors, alien conifers have been planted. "It's like going and looking at war graves. Every single tree is a death-knell, a nail in the coffin of that moor," said Williams. "We really are on the brink of disaster."

Vor dem Hintergrund des bevorstehenden Verbots von Neonicotinoiden hat der Saatguthersteller DuPont Pioneer im Juni eine bundesweite Umfrage zum zukünftigen Rapsanbau durchgeführt. 528 Rapsbauern gaben ihre Einschätzungen zu den zukünftigen Herausforderungen im Rapsanbau. Angesichts der aktuellen Alternativlosigkeit der neonicotinoidhaltigen Insektizide beim Raps überrascht es, dass nur 16 Prozent der Landwirte angaben, den Rapsanbau in 2014 zu minimieren. 59 Prozent der Befragten wollen die bisherigen Raps-Anbaufläche beibehalten. 18 Prozent konnten noch keine Angaben dazu machen. Der Grund für die bleibend hohe Anbaubereitschaft liegt laut Ulrich Schmidt, Business Director von DuPont Pioneer, darin, dass "die Kultur für reine Ackerbaubetriebe alternativlos" ist.

Under the EPBC Act more than 50 species of Australian animals have been listed as extinct, including 27 mammal species, 23 bird species, and 4 frog species. The number of known extinct Australian plants is 48. Australia’s rate of species decline continues to be among the world’s highest, and is the highest in the OECD.
The list of nationally threatened species continues to grow in Australia, with 426 animal species (including presumed extinctions) and 1,339 plant species listed as threatened under the EPBC Act. Furthermore, there is some evidence that the rates of recovery once a species has been listed as threatened, whilst it is difficult to determine in short time periods, may be particularly low. In a study conducted on 38 threatened species recovery plans across every state and territory, evidence of ongoing decline in populations was displayed in 37 per cent of cases.

Two parcels of the Lavaux vineyard area, western Switzerland, were studied to assess to which extent the widely used herbicide, glyphosate, and its metabolite aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA) were retained in the soil or exported to surface waters. Our results revealed elevated glyphosate and AMPA concentrations at 60 and 80 cm depth at parcel bottoms, suggesting their infiltration in the upper parts of the parcels and the presence of preferential flows in the studied parcels. Indeed, the succession of rainy days induced the gradual saturation of the soil porosity, leading to rapid infiltration through macropores, as well as surface runoff formation. Furthermore, the presence of more impervious weathered marls at 100 cm depth induced throughflows, the importance of which in the lateral transport of the herbicide molecules was determined by the slope steepness. Mobility of glyphosate and AMPA into the unsaturated zone was thus likely driven by precipitation regime and soil characteristics, such as slope, porosity structure and layer permeability discrepancy. Important rainfall events (>10 mm/day) were clearly exporting molecules from the soil top layer, as indicated by important concentrations in runoff samples. The mass balance showed that total loss (10–20%) mainly occurred through surface runoff (96%) and, to a minor extent, by throughflows in soils (4%), with subsequent exfiltration to surface waters.

Recently, legislative decisions withdrew or temporarily suspended the use of neonicotinoids and fipronil as seeds tanning in many countries because of their endocrine-disrupting activity imputable to the bees’ toxicity. In this study, the occurrence of acetamiprid, fipronil, clothianidin, flonicamid, imidacloprid, nitenpyram, thiacloprid and thiamethoxam was detected in 66 samples of commercial treated corn seeds, collected in the Italian market in the frame of ministerial institutional quality control activity. Because of the lack of a validated analytical protocol for neonicotinoid detection in seeds, a routinely suitable liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectroscopy (LC-MS/MS) analytical method was developed and statistically validated on fortified corn seeds. Survey results demonstrated that 88% of the investigated seed samples showed the presence of residues of clothianidin, fipronil, thiamethoxam and thiacloprid, either individually or simultaneously, with values that ranged from about 0.002 to 20 mg kg−1, which evidenced the alarming illicit use of these pesticides in seed treatments.