Roundup: what's next? (updated) First, Monsanto shed its pharmaceutical and chemical businesses -- which became known as Pharmacia and Solutia, respectively. Then it sold its Posilac dairy product business to Eli Lilly. Now, is it looking to sell its Roundup herbicide business? No, but what's next? Plenty. (partial rewrite)  More†

Legal

Ukraine to sprout GMO labs This does not mean that the Ukraine wants to harness science for the benefit of agriculture. Quite the opposite, in fact. By 2010, the country could establish as many as 25 GMO testing labs for the "comprehensive and timely control of food." This is said to be at the request of the food industry. Activists are not complaining. More†

NGO Watch

EU's NGOs declare they are lobbyists It's official: Europe's government-paid NGOs are lobbyists. In a new report, an "Alliance" of various groups complains that most of those who lobby European governments have failed to voluntarily register themselves as lobbyists -- supposedly showing that "the voluntary approach is failing to secure adequate coverage." It's not a total failure, though. Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth (FOE), both of which squander public funds, have registered themselves as political lobby organizations. As a result, they are now subject to a formal process for handling complaints that they have breached their promise to provide information that is "unbiased, complete, up-to-date and not misleading". Lodging a complaint is easy, and that's not just because you can do it online. More†

European lobby group invades Indian field trial Representatives of the European lobby group Greenpeace have invaded a field trial in India. Sponsored by the European Union, and funded by the government of the Netherlands, the activists struck a government-approved 1,440 sqm field trial of rice in Chinnakanjarla village of Medak district. No injuries were reported, nor any complaints lodged regarding India's territorial sovereignty. More†