Bayer settles Roundup claims

EU: The European Commission (EC) approved three genetically engineered (GE) crops on 31 March, according to a US Department of Agriculture Global Agricultural Information Network report on 12 April. The GE soyabean, rapeseed and cotton varieties were approved for food and feed imports for 10 years.

BRAZIL: The area planted with GM sugarcane is set to nearly double in the 2022/23 season starting in April, Reuters reported on 6 April.

According to Centro de Tecnologia Canavieira (CTC), new cane varieties resistant to stem-boring insects would cover 70,000ha in 2022/23, up from 37,000ha the previous year.

While this was just a fraction of the 8.2M ha of planted area in Brazil, it still underscored dramatic growth in GM sugarcane, with CTC receiving the world's first approval to sell GM sugarcane five years ago, the report said.

The company estimated that borers caused US$1.07bn/year in losses to Brazilian cane growers through lost productivity, lower sugar quality and insecticide costs.

CTC commercial director Luiz Paes said its transgenic cane had been adopted by some 170 clients which accounted for the majority of Brazil's annual sugarcane crush, with no other companies commercially selling GM sugarcane.

German chemical giant Bayer reached a settlement to resolve a group of claims that its weedkiller Roundup caused cancer just before a trial was set to start in St Louis, the St Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

The new agreement concerned a lawsuit first filed in 2017 that featured dozens of plaintiffs from around the USA, including St Louis resident and lead plaintiff Earl Neal, who claimed he was exposed to Roundup while working for the St Louis City Parks Department and St Louis City Forestry Department in the 1990s, the report said.

Neal and other claimants alleged that their use of Roundup — at home, at work or on farms — had caused their non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, the St Louis Post-Dispatch wrote.

Bayer, which inherited the lawsuits following its 2018 purchase of global agrochemical firm Monsanto for US$63bn, denies claims that Roundup or its active ingredient glyphosate causes cancer, saying decades of independent studies have shown the product is safe for human use.

Bayer did not disclose the specific terms of the settlement, according to the 7 April report, and a lawyer representing plaintiffs in the case did not respond to a request for comment.

“We are pleased that the Neal case has been resolved as part of our continuing work to settle the Roundup litigation on reasonable terms,” Bayer said in a statement.

Roundup is used by farmers in combination with the company’s genetically modified seeds.

The Indian government has issued an order exempting specific types of genome-edited (GE) crops from the stringent regulations applied to genetically-modified (GM) crops, Business Standard reported on 30 March.

The move was expected to boost further research and development into GE crops, the report said.

Issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forest, the order exempts SDN1 and SDN2 genome-edited plants from Rules 7-11 of the Environment Protection Act governing the manufacture, use, import, export and storage of hazardous micro-organisms or genetically-engineered organisms or cells.

“The notification will pave

Calyxt says seedless hemp offered improved yields and quality Photo: Adobe Stock

a path for the government to approve and set out the guidelines on GE plants pending since early 2020,” South Asia Biotechnology Centre founder director Bhagirath Choudhary said.

Gene editing allows genetic material to be added, removed or altered in a particular location in a living organism's existing DNA, compared with the introduction of a new, foreign gene (GM).

Global agribusiness giant Archers Daniels Midland (ADM) has announced it is set to expand non-genetically modified (nonGM) soyabean processing capacity at its oilseeds facility in Mainz, Germany.

The project is due for completion in the third quarter of this year, according to a 12 April statement by ADM.

“Soyabeans play an increasingly important role in the wider food sector in Germany,” said Jaana Kleinschmit, general manager of ADM Hamburg and country manager of Germany.

“We are pleased to continue to add to our ability to process non-GM soyabeans to meet growing demand across human and animal nutrition.”

Rene van der Poel, general manager of ADM Straubing, added: "With this expansion in Mainz, we are creating additional incentives for local farmers to grow more non-GM soyabeans and to incorporate soya into crop rotation farming."

The expansion followed a similar investment in the company’s oilseeds processing plant in Straubing, Germany, in 2016, ADM said.