Safe Food Matters Wins Glyphosate Court Case!
Back to the drawing board for PMRA to address the glyphosate objection
February 2, 2022. The Federal Court of Appeal has issued a decision in favour of Safe Food Matters in a court case concerning the pesticide glyphosate. The decision remits the matter back to the Pest Management Regulatory Agency for reconsideration, and offers strong guidance to PMRA to avoid “the endless merry-go-round” of court applications and reconsiderations.
In 2017, Safe Food Matters (and others) filed objections to PMRA’s decision RVD2017-01 to re-register glyphosate in Canada, and PMRA rejected the objections in 2019 with a form letter and dismissive reasons. Safe Food Matters filed in Federal Court, lost, then appealed. The win means a review panel could still be struck to review RVD2017-01 and recommend that it be confirmed, reversed or varied.
When we started this case, we said ‘we believe in the law’, and our belief has come true. Legal activism …Read More
Lawsuit slams lack of transparency in Health Canada’s management of chlorpyrifos
PMRA sticks to three-year phaseout despite evidence chlorpyrifos causes brain damage in children
OTTAWA/TRADITIONAL, UNCEDED TERRITORY OF THE ALGONQUIN ANISHNAABEG PEOPLE —
Ecojustice, on behalf of Safe Food Matters and Prevent Cancer Now, is headed to court to fight for greater transparency, consistency, and accountability in how Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) makes decisions regarding harmful chemicals that impact the health of Canadians.
In a lawsuit filed on Thursday, the groups challenge the PMRA’s Second Phaseout Decision regarding the dangerous pesticide chlorpyrifos. This decision maintains the three-year phaseout period set out in a previous decision from the PMRA, also being challenged by the groups in court. By maintaining the three-year phaseout, chlorpyrifos pest control products will continue to be used, including on food, until December 2023.
Health Canada first cancelled all uses of chlorpyrifos in May 2021 with a three-year phaseout, due to a failure of registrants to provide essential human health …Read More
Backgrounder to Glyphosate Appeal/ document d’information sur l’appel
Who We Are
Canadian non-profit, founded in 2016, dedicated to protecting health and protecting the environment, with a focus on the safety of food production technologies.
Campaigns have included GE foods and synthetic biology.
Taking Health Canada to the Federal Court of Appeal over its risk assessment of glyphosate.
Context
Glyphosate (Roundup) was registered for use in Canada in 1976 as a weed killer.
In the 2000s farmers started to spray it right onto growing crops to kill them.
The goal was to “dry-down” or “desiccate” the crops for efficiency purposes: (1) the timing of harvest could be scheduled, and (2) crops wouldn’t be wet so easier to harvest in one pass with big machines. This is “pre-harvest treatment” or “desiccation.”
Problem
When glyphosate is sprayed on crops that are growing, it moves through the roots into the plant’s circulation system and then binds to and moves with the nutrients right into the priority growing locations: the seeds, beans …Read More
Going to Court Over Glyphosate!
SAFE FOOD MATTERS Going to Court Over Roundup/Glyphosate
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TORONTO, February 12, 2019 – Safe Food Matters Inc. filed an application in federal court yesterday, challenging the re-registration of glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup herbicide. In 2017 it filed a notice of objection (“NoO”) to the re-registration decision and asked that an independent review panel be established. Eight NoOs were filed in mid-2017, and all were rejected on January 11, 2019.
“We have no choice but to go to Court on this issue” said Mary Lou McDonald, President of Safe Food Matters (and also a challenger in her own right). “We point out to the Pest Management Regulatory Agency (“PMRA”) exactly how this poison is concentrating in certain foods, and all they do is tweak the labels. The feds’ own data shows that label details aren’t followed or enforced. It is not right. They are completely ignoring the issue.”
In addition, …Read More
SynBio, Gene Editing and Other New Stuff: Same Concerns, Supersized.
SynBio, Gene Editing, CRISPR…
New words like “synthetic biology,” “GMOs 2.0,” “CRISPR,” and “new biology” are being heard. And new compounds are in our fragrances, flavourings, cosmetics and foods.
The new words are for new techniques of genetic engineering. What are the techniques and their products, and should we be concerned?
New Techniques
The old techniques of genetic engineering (GMOs 1.0) dealt with organisms, and inserted genes by either blasting them into an organism or transferring them via a virus. This was not very precise.
1. Gene Editing. A new technique is called “gene editing”. It is more on target. It can cut the genetic code of organisms with greater precision, insert new code, remove a code and swap out genes with others. Tools used in gene editing include “CRISPR-Cas9”, “Zinc Finger Nucleus” and “TALEN”.
2. Synthetic Biology. Another new technique is the creation of genetic code from scratch, without involving living organisms. This is called “synthetic …Read More
TO THE SALMON CONSUMER: I’M NOT BUYING IT.
Image: AquaBounty Technologies
Salmon that has been genetically modified to grow faster has been approved.
Health Canada states:
“in every other way, the AquaAdvantage salmon is identical to other farmed salmon.”
Not true. For one, it has higher levels of the growth hormone IGF-1[i] [ii], which is tied to several common cancers, including prostate, breast, colorectum and lung[iii]. For another, some GM salmon show a statistically significant increase (1.5 fold) in allergen content. Lastly, the eggs are pressure shocked to produce an abnormality so that they aren’t fertile.
I’m not eating that fish. Would you eat that fish?
And these three points on GM salmon are set out in Health Canada’s own document[iv]. So how can Health Canada approve the fish? Simple: it is silent on these points or it accepts the explanations presented by AquaBounty that the points aren’t “relevant”:
On the finding of higher levels of IGF-1, Health Canada accepts this is “not toxicologically …Read More
