GMO

The bicameral Arkansas Legislative Council approved an emergency rule allowing fines of up to $25,000 for "egregious" misuse of the weedkiller dicamba, the object of 550 complaints of crop damage, says KUAR-FM in Little Rock. The council, sometimes called the Legislature's most powerful committee because it oversees the executive branch of state government, is expected to decide on Friday whether to ban use of dicamba on cotton and soybeans for the rest of the growing season.

Two migrant farmworkers have filed a federal class action lawsuit against Monsanto, alleging that the company violated the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Agricultural Workers Protection Act while the workers were employed in Monsanto’s GMO seed corn fields.

With more than 500 complaints of weedkiller misuse from Arkansas farmers, Gov. Asa Hutchinson approved an 120-day ban on use of the herbicide dicamba on row crops and forwarded the emergency step to the state's Legislative Council for a final decision. Hutchinson also assented to increasing the fine for egregious misuse of herbicides to a maximum of $25,000 and sent it to the council as well.

With 13 months left to write final rules on the disclosure of GMO ingredients in food, the USDA posted 30 questions on its website about possible contents of the rule. It is allowing 19 days, until July 17, for public comment.

In Kansas City, a class-action lawsuit says Syngenta should be held liable for corn shipments rejected by China early this decade. And in Elk Point, South Dakota, Beef Products Inc. (BPI) is seeking billions of dollars in damages from American Broadcasting Companies Inc. (ABC) for reporting that used the name "pink slime" to refer to BPI's "lean finely textured beef."

The former head of EPA's cancer assessment review committee, Jess Rowlands, advised European counterparts to disregard a study that linked cancer in mice to glyphosate, the most widely used weedkiller in the world, said The Guardian. It said court documents show that Rowlands "had previously told Monsanto he would try to block a U.S. inquiry into the issue."

Years ago, Tropicana used the slogan "Flavors Mother Nature never intended" to sell mixed juices to Americans. In a moden-day version, the USDA is tracking down petunias with colors that nature never intended — they're genetically engineered to produce blooms of orange, red and purple with names such as African Sunset, Trilogy Mango and Sweetunia Orange Flash.

With a decision by the Maine Board of Pesticides Control, farmers in the state can now plant three varieties of genetically modified potatoes produced by J.R. Simplot Co., says the Bangor Daily News.

The amount of GMO crops grown worldwide in 2016 was up from the year before. Increased GMO plantings in Brazil and the United States accounted for most of the rise.

By the same 2-1 vote as last November, Boulder County commissioners approved a new version of their plan to phase out genetically engineered corn and sugar beets on county-owned farmland.

An Italian researcher says results of a study on animal health and the weedkiller glyphosate will be published in time for an EU decision on whether to allow continued use of the herbicide, says Reuters. Preliminary results show no initial adverse reaction in rats exposed to the herbicide in levels equal to that allowed in humans.

The EU voted to block two kinds of GMO crops, but weren’t able to get the “qualified majority” required to completely ban them. Instead, the vote has been kicked to the European Commission’s executive, President Jean-Claude Juncker, says Reuters.

U.S. officials repeatedly have prodded China for a faster and more open system for deciding whether to approve the import of new genetically engineered strains of crop. A U.S. business group says China is headed in the opposite direction by taking longer to approve a smaller number of GMO varieties — only one in 2016, reports Reuters.

Aflatoxin, created by a fungus, "is one of the most potent toxins on the planet," says Monica Schmidt of the University of Arizona, leader of a study on how to avoid crop loss to the toxin. Researchers developed a GMO corn variety with small RNA molecules that prevent the aspergillus fungus from creating the fungus in kernels of corn.

A Washington state judge ordered the Grocer Manufacturers Association to pay $1.1 million in costs and fees in a campaign finance lawsuit stemming from the state referendum over GMO food labeling in 2013. The trade group previously was fined $18 million for violating state campaign laws, the largest penalty ever.

Monsanto isn’t likely to get a green light to bring GMO corn seeds into Mexico anytime soon, says Reuters. Last week, the country upheld a 2013 Mexican court decision that banned even test plots of GMO corn in Mexico, because of concerns that the genetically modified varieties might contaminate native corn species through cross-pollination.

Orange production in Florida has plummeted since the arrival of citrus-greening disease. This season's crop in the No. 1 U.S. citrus state is estimated at 71 million boxes, less than half of pre-disease levels, says Agri-Pulse. Clemson University researchers are looking for a cure that involves gene editing.