On the market since last summer, BASF’s herbicide-tolerant, non-GMO Clearfield canola business in Canada and the U.S. has landed at the door of Corteva Agriscience. Corteva, the merged seed and chemical business of Dow and DuPont, announced Wednesday it has closed a deal to buy the Clearfield system, including its herbicide-tolerant canola trait and related […] Read more

DowDuPont’s Corteva arm buys Clearfield canola system

French, German farmers destroy crops after GMOs found in Bayer seeds
Paris | Reuters — Bayer said on Wednesday that farmers in France and Germany were digging up thousands of hectares of rapeseed fields after traces of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) banned for cultivation were found in seeds sold by the company. GMO crops are widely grown across the world, but they remain controversial in Europe, […] Read more

U.S. judge to allow controversial evidence in Roundup cancer trials
Reuters — A federal judge overseeing lawsuits alleging Bayer’s glyphosate-based Roundup herbicide causes cancer on Monday tentatively allowed pieces of controversial evidence that the company had hoped to exclude from upcoming trials. U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria during a hearing in San Francisco federal court called his decision “probably most disappointing for Monsanto,” the Bayer […] Read more

France’s glyphosate exit seen 80 per cent complete by 2021
Paris | Reuters — France expects to have cut the use of glyphosate herbicide by 80 per cent by early 2021, its agriculture minister said on Friday, less than previously anticipated due to the number of farmers who will qualify for an exemption. In November 2017, President Emmanuel Macron pledged to ban glyphosate in France […] Read more

Health Canada dismisses glyphosate objections
Health Canada’s 2017 decision requiring no major changes to product labels for glyphosate herbicide will stand, despite the objections filed in its wake. The federal health department said Friday it has reviewed eight notices of objection received after it released its final re-evaluation decision on glyphosate in April 2017. The objections were filed with Health […] Read more

Canola, corn, soy traits to move forward with China approvals
Approvals from China are expected to allow several major trait developments to move ahead in Canadian canola, corn and soybean fields. The Reuters news service on Tuesday reported safety certificate approvals from China’s ministry of agriculture and rural affairs for biotech traits including: Bayer’s 88302, or TruFlex canola, approved in Canada since 2012; BASF’s RF3, […] Read more
Eighteen Alberta community groups get $2,500 grant
Reading Time: < 1 minute A program that allows farmers to nominate their favourite community charity or not-for-profit group for a $2,500 grant attracted a record number of applications this year. The 2018 edition of Canada’s Farmers Grow Communities received 758 farmer applications (a 68 per cent increase from 2017) and 337 charity suggestions (a 200 per cent increase from […] Read more

Bayer to shed animal health division, others after Monsanto deal
Frankfurt | Reuters — Bayer, the German drugmaker that bought U.S. seed company Monsanto, announced on Thursday the sale of its animal health business and a number of others, around 12,000 job cuts and 3.3 billion euros (C$4.98 billion) in impairments. CEO Werner Baumann is under pressure to boost Bayer’s share price after a drop […] Read more

U.S. judge selects first case in federal glyphosate litigation
Reuters — A U.S. judge overseeing the federal litigation against Bayer’s Monsanto unit over glyphosate-based herbicides allegedly causing cancer on Tuesday selected the first case to be tried in federal court in February 2019. U.S. District Judge Vince Chaabria in San Francisco in an order said the case of California resident Edwin Hardeman will be […] Read more

U.S. judge orders next glyphosate cancer trial for March
Reuters — A California judge on Thursday granted an expedited trial for March in the case of a couple suffering from cancer who sued Bayer’s Monsanto unit, alleging the company’s glyphosate-containing herbicide Roundup caused their disease. The order by Superior Court Judge Ioana Petrou in Oakland, Calif. comes on the heels of a $289 million […] Read more