Over millennia, there has been a seamless continuum of technologies for genetic modification of plants, animals, and microorganisms, with progressive improvements in precision and predictability – a fact that seems to have escaped the notice of EU politicians and regulators.
European Union
Innovation is built upon an ecosystem that takes decades to mature. Yet, China has already made substantial advances in computer science, chemistry, engineering, and robotics -- all of which pose a direct challenge to U.S. technological supremacy. However, the U.S. will remain dominant and largely unchallenged in biotech and medicine for the foreseeable future.
Mergers may be a great business decision, but they may not be great for society. If the European Union is not distracted by politics and anti-GMO activists – and if it's able to focus solely on the economic pros and cons of a merger – it is engaging in appropriate regulatory oversight. (But that's a big "if.")
For a continent that (bizarrely) prides itself on turning away from religion, Europe has ironically replaced it with all manner of postmodern nonsense and pseudoscience. Welcome to the New Dark Age.
Atrazine, one of the most effective and commonly used herbicides (weed-killers) in the world, is back in the news. Today s New York Times international business article discusses disparities in regulations that complicate Trans-Atlantic trade. Specifically
The grassroots "vaping community" of e-cigarette users was mainly responsible for avoiding having the EU ban, in effect, e-cigarettes. The NYTimes discussion of this public health victory focuses instead on the so-called "e-cigarette industry" and its manipulation of the EU Parliament. This is false, although some e-cig companies did try to mobilize their customers. Why not?
When the EU adopted the anti-science precautionary principle as its guiding paradigm a decade or more ago, we don t think anyone (except perhaps its anti-progress advocates) had any idea how low the regulatory process would stoop in service of its ideology.
In a predictable yet still tragic outcome, a key committee of the EU Parliament yesterday voted to effectively ban electronic cigarettes containing more than a minimum level of nicotine.
The European Parliament will be meeting next week in Brussels, and they may be confronted with a populist uprising based on sound science, a most unusual occurrence. The topic: e-cigarettes, and the asinine draft Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) crafted last December by the EU Health committee.