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Archives for Food & Consumers

Not black and white: the regulatory status of plants from new breeding methods

June 11, 2018

Guest blog post by Garlich von Essen, Secretary General, European Seed Association (ESA) and Petra Jorasch, Manager Plant Breeding & Innovation Advocacy, European Seed Association (ESA) The Advocate General takes a differentiated view when assessing the regulatory status of plants resulting from new breeding methods. The latest plant breeding methods like genome editing can help… » read more

  Posted by The Guest Blog

Agriculture & Food, BioTech, blogactiv, Food & Consumers, Health & Consumers

To Karmenu Vella: stop mako sharks fishing before it’s too late!

October 31, 2017

OPEN LETTER 25 October 2017 Karmenu Vella, Commissioner Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries European Commission 1049 Brussels Dear Commissioner Vella: We write regarding one of the world’s most vulnerable and valuable shark species – the shortfin mako, with hopes of enlisting your help to avert North Atlantic population collapse. As head of the EU’s environment… » read more

  Posted by The Guest Blog

Better regulation, blogactiv, Business & Climate Change, Climate & Environment, Fishery, Food & Consumers

Larva: a story about the future of agriculture and GMO research

October 6, 2017

Guest post by Roberto Defez, molecular microbiologist at the Institute of Bioscience and BioResources, Italian National Research Council. Agriculture is at a turning point. Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis (Health) and Phil Hogan (Agriculture) are sitting on two running horses approaching a crossroad. There is no middle road. They have to decide whether to keep research on… » read more

  Posted by The Guest Blog

Agriculture & Food, BioTech, blogactiv, Development Policy, Food & Consumers, Innovation and Growth

Going backwards from Brexit

January 16, 2017

“Have you gone mad?”, is the most frequent question from mainland European friends on the sore-vexed issue of Britain’s Gadarene flight from Europe. They are of course not questioning my sanity, but that of the thirty-seven per cent of the British electorate who voted on June 23 to leave the European Union. For without a… » read more

  Posted by Brian Gardner's Blog

blogactiv, Food & Consumers

Juicing the Numbers: Could Number-mongering be Stupid’s Last Stand?

March 25, 2016

  Two studies came out (just in time for Pesticide Action Week) that question the cost to society of pesticides and other chemicals. The logic is simple: Chemicals cost societies billions of dollars, therefore removing them would save money. I am a little troubled by such a simplistic view – like any statistical analysis, you… » read more

  Posted by The Risk-Monger

Agriculture & Food, blogactiv, Food & Consumers, Health & Consumers, Innovation and Growth, Public Affairs, Science & Policymaking, Sustainable Dev.

IARC’s unprofessional and unethical behaviour. Time to retract their glyphosate monograph

March 21, 2016

  The last blog looked at ten reasons why glyphosate is the herbicide of the century. So why then, despite the overwhelming scientific evidence and clear environmental and social benefits, is this product on the verge of having its authorisation removed? The NGO activists and pro-organic lobbyists have led a formidable campaign that started a… » read more

  Posted by The Risk-Monger

Agriculture & Food, blogactiv, Food & Consumers, Health & Consumers, Science & Policymaking, Science & Research

10 Reasons why Glyphosate is Good

March 18, 2016

The following is the first of a two-part blog looking at how a corrupt unethical campaign against an essential agricultural product is succeeding in the EU. This first part will look at why glyphosate is such a good product for farmers; the second part will demonstrate how environmental NGOs, activist scientists, organic lobbyists and IARC… » read more

  Posted by The Risk-Monger

Agriculture & Food, BioTech, blogactiv, Food & Consumers, Health & Consumers, Public Affairs, Science & Policymaking, Sustainable Dev.

How to Deal with Stupid Part 5/10: Commonality – How Stupid Sounds Believable

January 5, 2016

Last month’s Paris Climate Conference (COP 21) was an exemplary moment in the history of stupid. A dismal failure, the much anticipated climate event did not produce any binding treaty, any strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and its toothless “non-adversarial and non-punitive” accord essentially put climate decisions on the back-burner until after 2050. Rather… » read more

  Posted by The Risk-Monger

Agriculture & Food, BioTech, blogactiv, Food & Consumers, Health & Consumers, Public Affairs, Science & Policymaking

How to Deal with Stupid: Part 2/10 – Social Media: How stupid gets its wings

November 27, 2015

  I am sure there are days when the Food Babe, Vani Hari, must close her laptop, look out of her living room window and marvel: How is it that a woman with a diploma in computer science and without any education in toxicology, chemistry or nutrition could become a global leader in diet and… » read more

  Posted by The Risk-Monger

Agriculture & Food, BioTech, blogactiv, Food & Consumers, Health & Consumers, Public Affairs, Science & Policymaking

How to Deal with Stupid: Part 1/10 – Defining Stupid

November 20, 2015

The following is Part 1 of a ten-part blog on governance to be serialised over the holidays. Today our personal decision-making process is strongly influenced by the latest social media applications yet EU and American government policy mechanisms, developed in the last century, have not been adapted to these communications tools. This discrepancy has created… » read more

  Posted by The Risk-Monger

Agriculture & Food, BioTech, blogactiv, Climate & Environment, Energy, Food & Consumers, Health & Consumers, Innovation & Enterprise, Innovation and Growth, Public Affairs, Science & Policymaking, Science & Research, Sustainable Dev.

The Risk-Monger’s Dirty Dozen – 12 highly toxic pesticides approved for use in organic farming

November 12, 2015

  It is commonly believed that organic farmers do not use pesticides and that organic food is therefore safer to consume than conventionally farmed fruit and vegetables. In a UK poll, 95% of the consumers bought organic food because they wanted to avoid consuming pesticides. This belief could not be further from the truth. The… » read more

  Posted by The Risk-Monger

Agriculture & Food, BioTech, blogactiv, Food & Consumers, Health & Consumers, Public Affairs, Science & Policymaking, Sustainable Dev.

Media Hypocrisy: Marketing Emotions, Ignoring Facts on Cancer Findings

October 30, 2015

As we watch the mainstream media come up with excuses for the IARC monograph that showed, without a shadow of a doubt, that prepared meats and sausages are carcinogenic (Group 1 = carcinogenic), we should take a moment to reflect on why our news sources have become so inconsistent when it comes to reporting on… » read more

  Posted by The Risk-Monger

Agriculture & Food, BioTech, blogactiv, Food & Consumers, Health & Consumers, Innovation and Growth, Public Affairs, Science & Policymaking, Science & Research, Sustainable Dev.

The Pesticide Industry’s Moral Dilemma

October 2, 2015

  The agricultural-science world is looking on in horror as countries, regions and retailers are beginning to ban glyphosate, the active ingredient found in Monsanto’s main herbicide, Roundup. These restrictions are not being implemented on scientific grounds (per exposure level, coffee and biscuits are far more toxic than glyphosate) but on the basis of moral… » read more

  Posted by The Risk-Monger

Agriculture & Food, BioTech, blogactiv, Food & Consumers, Health & Consumers, Innovation and Growth, Public Affairs, Science & Policymaking, Sustainable Dev., transparency

Activist Creep also Matters. An Open Letter to EFSA Director Hubert Deluyker

September 24, 2015

  Dear Dr Deluyker Today at the Corporate Europe Observatory event in the European Parliament entitled Science vs Lobbying, I asked you a question that you declined to answer. I am not sure whether you had forgotten the question or if EFSA does not yet have a policy on this issue. As I think it… » read more

  Posted by The Risk-Monger

Agriculture & Food, blogactiv, Food & Consumers, Health & Consumers, Public Affairs, Science & Policymaking, Sustainable Dev.
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