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Review 596: GMOs in General, Part II

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Welcome to Part II of our Review, which leads with developments in the expanding field of GM AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, and follows with an update on NEW GMOs and news from SOUTH AMERICA and AFRICA. The myth that the “GM and agrochemicals” model of farming is FEEDING THE WORLD continues to attract well-deserved debunking. We also report on GMO TREES (including encouraging news on the beleaguered American chestnut), GMO INSECTS, GMO MICRO-ORGANISMS, BIOSAFETY (further expert opinions have emerged that COVID originated with a lab leak), GENE DRIVE, CLONING, GENETICALLY ENGINEERED HUMANS, and the collapse of FAKE MEAT. Part I of this Review is archived here.

GM AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

US tech billionaire pumps $60 million into British firm to develop GM crops and AI
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The UK-based agbiotech firm Wild Bioscience specialises in “AI-powered precision crop breeding” – more accurately described as plant genetic engineering supported by AI technology. Now the company has secured a massive $60 million investment from a group led by the Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT), a think tank founded by US big tech billionaire Larry Ellison. Ellison is co-founder of the software company Oracle. He is also a media mogul, top donor to the Israel Defense Forces, and member of President Trump’s inner circle. And he is moving into GM seeds. As with Bill Gates, this move shows the growing influence of immensely wealthy tech titans over future biotech developments. This is also apparent in the area of human genetics.
New GMOs and AI: Risks to biodiversity
The Testbiotech webinar on new GMOs and AI, “Far beyond any control or prediction: The convergence of NGTs and AI – risks to biodiversity” is now online. In the webinar, experts warn that the ongoing convergence of AI and genetic engineering can lead to organisms that have the potential to produce a set of novel, hard-to-predict effects. Forecasting how bespoke genomes will behave is incredibly difficult. Once released, the genetic changes could be out in live beings potentially for millennia, far beyond any control or prediction. They might reverberate down countless generations.
NEW GMOs UPDATE
EU consumers could lose the battle for GMO-free organic food, SAFE warns
SAFE – Safe Food Advocacy Europe, a European consumer organisation specialised in food policy – called for the protection of organic food in the European Union ahead of this year’s BIOFACH, the world’s largest trade fair for organic food and agriculture. SAFE said it regrets recent legislative steps to make new genomic techniques (NGTs, new GM techniques) free from mandatory requirements applicable to other GMOs and warned that this will mean the end of organic food as we know it. SAFE’s deputy director Luigi Tozzi said: “Organic food production is at serious risk under the new legislation, because the measures in place to separate organic food production from food derived from new genomic techniques will disappear soon. This means that in the future, products sold as organic may contain traces of NGT crops, restricting consumer choice and undermining the very concept of organic food production. This is a very serious threat for an important sector trusted by millions of European consumers.”
SOUTH AMERICA
Argentina: GMOs and their associated pesticides in the dock
The end of 2025 was expected to mark a major milestone for people seeking to convict those responsible for agrochemical pollution. The court case against three agro-industrial entrepreneurs, brought by Sabrina Ortiz (a resident who was sprayed with pesticides), a whistleblower, and a lawyer, for pollution in Pergamino, was scheduled to begin in December. In the dock would be three businessmen and, in a historic move, the public officials who were supposed to control the spraying yet failed to do so. However, the defendants asked to delay the trial and now it is set to begin in February. Looking at the last three decades, in terms of the relationship between agricultural production and pesticide use, it is possible to measure the exponential increase in the use of GMOs, which correlates with the amount of sprayed pesticides. The area planted with cereals and oilseeds increased from 19,000 hectares in 1990 to 41,182,000 (117 per cent) in 2023, according to figures provided by Javier Souza Casadinho, coordinator of the Latin American Pesticide Action Network (Rapal), who adds that pesticide use in the period mentioned increased from 35 to 580 million kg/Lt, an increase of 1,657 per cent. Current policies further entrench the toxic dependency model. “I see setbacks in every sense. One of them is the record approval of GMOs. That means more associated poison cocktails,” explains Marcos Filardi, a lawyer specialising in food sovereignty. “[President Javier Gerardo] Milei’s government is the government that has approved the most GMOs in this period of time and boasts publicly about doing so.”
“Expulsion by suffocation”: How GM soy expansion and herbicide use are displacing Amazonian communities
In the heart of the Brazilian Amazon, the expansion of soy is not only transforming landscapes but also suffocating the communities that inhabit them. The intensive use of herbicides – particularly glyphosate – in GM soybean plantations has deeply disrupted the dynamics that sustain life in Amazonian communities and their relationship with the land. These findings come from a recent ethnographic study. Through the community’s critical narratives, it was possible to expose how respiratory impacts and experiences of suffocation among this population lead to a slow and prolonged process of expulsion. This mechanism acts simultaneously on bodies, ecosystems, and the very possibility of remaining in their territories.
AFRICA
Battle for African Agriculture podcast
In the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA)'s podcast series, “The Battle for African Agriculture” hosted by Dr Million Belay, recent interviewees include Prof Michael Antoniou, food policy expert Timothy A. Wise, and Stacy Malkan of US Right to Know. All episodes are here.
FEEDING THE WORLD
Epicentre of GM crops is also hotspot for hunger
In the country considered the epicentre of GMO crop development, possessing the largest area of GM crops in the world, and driving much of the “feeding the world” narrative, 47,900,000 Americans, including one in five children, were food insecure in 2024, as the latest USDA “Household Food Security in the United States” report shows. The Trump administration has since cancelled these reports, making this the final one.
Debunking the myths around the Green Revolution (podcast)
In a Food Sleuth Radio podcast, Glenn Davis Stone, author of The Agricultural Dilemma: How Not to Feed the World, discusses how the Green Revolution didn’t speed up food production – but did fuel the growth of fertilisers and pesticides. It also provided a legend that is completely untrue.
The Agrarian Imagination: Development and the Art of the Impossible
This collection of 16 essays by Colin Todhunter is an unflinching assessment of the systems that dictate how we live, labour and interact with one another and with the planet. It rejects the notion that “development” is an inherently good idea by exposing how the standard model – driven by the neoliberal capitalism, corporate interests and top-down policy – functions as an engine of injustice, displacement and ecological destruction.
India’s Farmers Against the Global Agri-Cartel: Chronicling Resistance to Corporate Enclosures
Compiling 19 essays by Colin Todhunter written over a decade (2015–2026), this free e-book offers an in-depth look at India’s unfolding agrarian crisis. These pieces – previously published in print and on digital platforms – now serve as a unified resource for activists, researchers and concerned citizens. Each essay stands alone, inviting readers to explore the complexities of our food systems at their own pace and interest. While the essays focus on India, the questions they raise transcend national boundaries. The forces reshaping India’s countryside – corporate capture of food systems, erosion of rural livelihoods and the struggle to defend local autonomy – are global in scope. 
Awards for film drawing attention to GMOs and pesticides problems
Congratulations to Helena Berndl and Francesco Maria Gallo, whose film In Symbiosis, about what’s wrong with food and farming and how to put it right, won Best Documentary at the International Film Gala London and the Westminster Film Festival. More on the film, which features (among others) Prof Michael Antoniou and GMWatch’s Claire Robinson on GMOs and pesticides, here.
GMO TREES

Wild American chestnuts thriving on biologist’s land in Maine
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A documentary-style environmental investigation reveals a remarkable and little-known success story: thousands of wild, healthy American chestnut trees flourishing on the Maine forest land of renowned biologist and author Dr Bernd Heinrich. Their vigorous natural growth – and possible blight resistance – directly counters long-held beliefs that the iconic species survives today only as scattered, doomed sprouts. In 1982 Heinrich planted wild American chestnut seedlings on his land. Since then, blue jays and squirrels have spread the trees widely across the forest. “This film presents some good news about the wild American chestnut and is a stark contrast to claims by some researchers that genetically engineered trees are the only path to restoration,” said Anne Petermann, executive director of Global Justice Ecology Project (GJEP). “It was stunning to see so many robust trees – three full generations growing naturally – when the efforts to engineer blight-resistant chestnuts have produced nothing but failures.”
Brazil’s GM eucalyptus boom shows how land-based geoengineering — marketed as climate mitigation — causes colonial, ecological, and social harms
In Brazil, so-called “green deserts” have been expanding across the country, bringing the same water scarcity and biodiversity loss associated with traditional deserts. Unlike traditional dry deserts defined by the absence of trees, green deserts are defined by their presence – namely, the presence of fast-growing non-native GM eucalyptus. GM eucalyptus is being marketed as the next frontier of “carbon dioxide removal”. These trees are engineered for traits such as accelerated growth or delayed decomposition and are framed as climate solutions despite ecological and scientific uncertainties. They represent land-based geoengineering with consequences for forests, water systems, biodiversity, and Indigenous Peoples. Pulp manufacturer Suzano’s biotech subsidiary FuturaGene is pairing industrial forestry with synthetic biology to market plantations as carbon assets. The result is two extractive agendas: carbon offsetting and biotechnology expansion, which mask the social and ecological harms.
GMO INSECTS
Oxitec withdraws application to release its GM mosquitoes in Australia
In a victory for public health and the environment, the British biotech firm Oxitec and CSIRO have withdrawn their application to commercially release millions of GM mosquitoes across Northern Australia. The plan had attracted strong opposition from the public and scientists. The withdrawal of the plan follows Oxitec’s announcement last summer that it has launched a facility in Brazil to produce non-GMO Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes. Wolbachia is a naturally occurring bacterium that biocontrol companies are using to prevent mosquitoes from transmitting dengue and other diseases. It’s a non-GMO approach. Oxitec claims its Wolbachia infected mosquitoes are “capable of protecting up to 100 million people threatened by dengue”. Oddly, however, Oxitec previously opposed Wolbachia use in California. But that was before the company stood to profit from investing in the technology.
GMO MICRO-ORGANISMS
The EU deregulation of GMO micro-organisms is underway
A proposal for a directive made by the European Commission in December 2025 calls on Member States and the European Parliament to deregulate the marketing of genetically modified bacteria, yeasts, viruses and other micro-organisms, including transgenics. According to the Commission, the aim would be to allow companies to market these GMO microorganisms (GMMs) under lighter or even no rules. This would involve an “adapted” health and environmental risk assessment, an end to traceability, and an end to environmental monitoring. Following plants, the deregulation of GMOs is therefore continuing, this time with microorganisms, with animals perhaps next in line in 2026.
Bayer’s GM soil microbes pose soil contamination risk
Bayer’s development of GM soil microbes could pose risks of widespread soil contamination and adverse effects on agriculture. As part of a bid to replace traditional fossil-fuel-based agrochemicals with genetically engineered microbes, Bayer has been developing GM soil microbes in collaboration with US biotech company Ginkgo Bioworks, the report said. However, in its report to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Gingko highlighted the potential risks associated with the release of these GMOs into the environment. Gingko’s report acknowledged that the full effects of deploying GMOs into uncontrolled environments were unknown and could have unintended consequences. The potential dangers of GM soil bacteria are highlighted by Dr Elaine Ingham, a former associate professor at Oregon State University. Dr Ingham led a study on a GM soil bacterium which was initially intended to convert plant waste into alcohol for fertiliser or fuel. Dr Ingham’s research discovered that the modified bacterium not only killed all tested plants but also had the potential to eliminate all terrestrial plant life.
Genetically modified bacteria tested in humans stayed in guts of some people
Scientists have developed a genetically modified gut bacterium in an attempt to break down a common cause of kidney stones. The bacterium was considered to be safe in human tests, but it mutated and stuck around in the guts of two trial participants despite treatment with antibiotics.
BIOSAFETY
MON810 maize and teosinte: Hybridisation still unmonitored
For several years, EFSA and ANSES have been asking Bayer to monitor the emergence of teosinte, the wild ancestor of maize, in fields cultivated with MON810 GM maize in Portugal and Spain. In 2023, the company was still not doing so. However, the presence of teosinte in Europe has been confirmed. A scientific study has even shown experimentally that the MON810 transgene can be transmitted from maize to teosinte plants collected in Spanish fields. The production of transgenic insecticidal protein is therefore not under control.
New book – Exposed: A Pfizer Scientist Battles Corruption, Lies, and Betrayal, and Becomes a Biohazard Whistleblower
When molecular biologist Becky McClain raised urgent alarms about biosafety lapses at her biotech lab at Pfizer, she expected concern – not retaliation. Instead, her warnings about dangerous, genetically engineered viruses that were handled without following standard safety protocols were met with hostility, intimidation, and ultimately, devastating illness after a workplace exposure changed her life forever. Exposed is McClain’s memoir of her transformation from dedicated scientist to successful biotech whistleblower. 
COVID “probably” a lab leak – US State Dept official
In an address to the UN, Thomas DiNanno, US State Department Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security, said the COVID-19 pandemic that killed millions worldwide “was probably the result of risky biological research”. 
The NIH director thinks COVID-19 probably started in a lab
“I think a lot of scientists agree with me that the best available evidence suggests that the pandemic was the result of a lab accident that happened in Wuhan, China… In my view, it’s pretty close to certain,” the current director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Jay Bhattacharya told the New York Times in an interview.
“I believe the virus was engineered to infect human beings” – former CDC Director
In a recent interview, the US virologist and former Center for Disease Control (CDC) director Robert Redfield told the journalist Paul Thacker that he has a top secret security clearance and knows all the evidence pointing to the COVID-19  pandemic having started in a lab in Wuhan has not yet been declassified. Based on his review of the science and classified material, Redfield says he is sure the pandemic was the result of an accident involving the virus being engineered to infect human beings at a Wuhan lab funded by the former NIH director Tony Fauci, who then tried to cover all of this up. In his recent book, Redfield warns, “We literally believe we can manipulate nature in laboratories and there won’t be any consequences. That’s a false belief. We know for a fact we can capture potentially deadly pathogens and try to uncover their secrets. We know for a fact we can change the properties of those pathogens to make them less deadly – or more deadly. But we also know for a fact we can’t keep our laboratories secure. Gain-of-function research is a recipe for disaster.”
GENE DRIVE
Gene drives and the risks of collateral damage
Université de Montpellier evolutionary biologist Christophe Boëte has published a new article emphasising the dangers of gene drive – a method of forcing a genetically engineered trait into an entire species or population, typically of wild animals or insects. Boëte writes: “The assumption that modifying an entire species complex will yield only beneficial outcomes is scientifically misleading, overly reductive, and ecologically risky.” In another recent journal article, Boëte, a specialist in vector-borne diseases, warnedthat current communication around gene drives “often borders on propaganda” and that the hype and exaggerated claims involved could “unintentionally bias policy discussions and divert resources away from simpler, proven approaches” to disease control.
CLONING
Cloned meat is coming soon. Health Canada just doesn’t want you to know
According to Health Canada documents, Ottawa intends to remove foods derived from cloned cattle and swine from its “novel foods” list — the very process that requires a pre-market safety review and triggers public disclosure. Once this policy takes effect, cloned-animal products could enter the Canadian food supply without announcement, notice, or label. Dr Michael Hansen has laid out the problems with cloned-animal-derived meat and milk.
GENETICALLY ENGINEERED HUMANS

Silicon Valley’s race to produce genetically engineered humans
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Brian Armstrong, CEO of the Silicon Valley cryptocurrency company Coinbase and an enthusiast for heritable genome editing in humans, is funding genome editing startup Preventive, co-founded by Lucas Harrington. Publicly, Harrington says he is planning to work carefully, with maximum transparency, to establish the safety and efficacy of embryo editing before attempting to use heritable genome editing to bring about genetically modified children. But according to a recent report from the Wall Street Journal, Preventive has considered taking a page from the playbook of the Chinese scientist He Jiankui, who rushed ahead to genetically engineer children, illegally and apparently without official permission.
Take action: Sign International Declaration Against Legalisation of Human Genetic Modification
Please add your name to the International Declaration Against Legalisation of Human Genetic Modification.
FAKE MEAT
Cultivated meat’s casualties: who is failing and why?
Despite massive investment in the sector ($1 bn in a single year), makers of cell-based meat are failing fast. GMWatch predicted this collapse years ago, on the basis that the technology is expensive, energy- and resource-hungry, and hard to scale up to commercial production levels. 

Ramazzini Institute researchers protest: “Our independence is at risk”

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They fear the pesticide industry’s response to the Global Glyphosate Study triggered the firing of the Institute’s scientific director

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EU consumers could lose the battle for GMO-free organic food, SAFE warns

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SAFE regrets legislative steps to make "new GM" techniques free from mandatory requirements applicable to other GMOs and warns that this will mean the end of organic food as we know it

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Review 595: GMOs in General, Part I

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Welcome to Part I of our GMOs in General Review. We lead with disturbing NEW GMOs UPDATES, followed by GMO BANS AND RESTRICTIONS, SEED SOVEREIGNTY, the shocking human costs of a major GMO FAILURE, and our latest LOBBYWATCH reports on the 10-billion-dollar biotech Goliath, Colossal Biosciences. We also have sections on GMO APPROVALS AND EXPANSION and PATENTS. Part II of the GMOs in General Review will follow soon.

NEW GMOs UPDATES
EU’s ENVI Committee votes to deregulate new GMOs
In the EU European Parliament’s ENVI Committee, 59 MEPs voted in favour of deregulation, 24 against, and there were 2 abstentions. Members of the right-wing EPP and far-right PfE parties voted en bloc in favour of deregulation. In GMWatch’s view, this was a sad day for democracy, public health and the environment. But the proposal still has to be approved in a European Parliament plenary, which is expected to take place towards the end of April. (No link in header)

Coming to your neighbourhood soon? Seriously risky outdoor gene editing
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Gene-edited plants developed and tested in labs and greenhouses before release carry risks – as numerous scientific papers attest. Yet outdoor gene editing poses even more serious risks – including that active gene editing tools could end up altering the genomes of humans and other living organisms in the environment. Some scientists who argue for deregulation of gene editing deny that outdoor gene editing is possible. But patents and the scientific literature tell a very different story. The authors of a new scientific paper on the topic, Prof Jack Heinemann and colleagues, write: “Scalable lab-free genome editing is already firmly in the technological trajectory of molecular biology and agricultural practice.”
GMO BANS AND RESTRICTIONS
Genetically modified wheat banned in the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina 
A court ruling has prohibited the use and release of GM HB4 wheat in the Argentine province of Buenos Aires. The ruling is temporary until the Agricultural Biotechnology and Biosafety Commission is formed, which is responsible for preparing a report on the introduction and release of the GM wheat and its effects on natural resources, health, production and marketing. The precautionary measure was issued by the court in response to a petition filed by producers from agroecological establishments, socio-environmental organisations and indigenous peoples. Judge Néstor Adrián Salas said the release of the world’s first approved GM wheat – developed and marketed by Bioceres – could cause “serious and irreversible damage” to the environment and human health. He refers to both the crop and the associated agrochemical – in this case, glufosinate, a herbicide that is more toxic than glyphosate. “If the material is released in Buenos Aires province, this being the first [GM] genetic event to be applied to wheat seed, it could lead to the irreversible crossbreeding of the material with non-genetically modified wheat,” warns Salas. 
Italy’s ban on cultivating GMO corn legitimate says EU court
Italy’s ban on the cultivation of genetically modified corn is legitimate, the Court of Justice of the European Union said. The decision regarded an appeal by an Italian farmer who was ordered to destroy a crop of GM maize (MON 810), which was planted on his farm despite the ban, and given fines totalling 50,000 euros. The Court endorsed the procedure that, at the request of a Member State and with the tacit consent of the authorisation holder, allows the European Commission to restrict the zone where the cultivation of a GMO is authorised. (Unfortunately, such national bans will not be allowed on new GMOs (NGTs) under the deregulation as currently proposed in the EU.)
SEED SOVEREIGNTY
Victory for maize class action lawsuit in Mexico
Mexico’s Demanda Colectiva Maíz (Maíz Class Action Lawsuit) has won a new legal victory in the fight for food sovereignty. The federal court said the government must respond to their demand that Mexico countersue the US under the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement (USMCA) for 
* Missing analyses and safety studies on GMO maize 
* Biased risk assessments.
After two years without a response from the Ministry of Economy, the federal court has ordered it to respond to Demanda Colectiva Maíz’s request to activate USMCA mechanisms against the United States in the area of agricultural biotechnology. Demanda Colectiva Maíz, initiated in 2013 in Mexico by citizens and organisations, seeks to permanently ban the planting of genetically modified corn and the use of glyphosate, in order to protect native biodiversity, health, and food sovereignty.
Israeli forces attack seed bank in Palestine
In July 2025, the Israeli military forces carried out a raid on the Seed Multiplication Unit of the Palestinian Seed Bank in Hebron. Bulldozers and military equipment were used to demolish the storage facilities, where indigenous seeds, agricultural tools, and equipment were kept for local seed reproduction. The facility has been central to the collective effort of Palestinian peasants to preserve traditional seed varieties and ensure their ability to cultivate food on their own terms. La Via Campesina, the global movement of peasant farmers, has denounced the attack.
Kenyan farmers secure right to share local seeds in court ruling
Small-scale farmers in Kenya sang and celebrated after a court ruling secured their right to carry on the traditional practice of sharing local seeds. Kenya’s High Court said that part of a law banning the practice was unconstitutional, a ruling that farmer Samuel Kioko called a “great victory”.
Indian farmers protest new seed bill, calling it a threat to the country’s sovereignty
Hundreds of thousands of farmers across India protested against the new draft Seed Bill 2025 in December, burning copies of the bill and demanding its withdrawal. The bill will compromise the country’s food security and threaten its seed sovereignty, the farmers claimed. They fear it will establish multinational corporate control over the supply of seeds, ending the existing arrangement, which provides greater flexibility to the farmers to source seeds from local or public sectors.
GMO FAILURE
Farmer suicides in India: Bt cotton a major driver
Maharashtra and Karnataka have remained the epicentres of farmer suicides in India for more than two decades, with suicide rates consistently about 2.5 times the national average since the mid-1990s, according to a new analysis of 28 years of National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data. One of the major drivers over the years has been the rapid spread of Bt cotton in the early 2000s, particularly across rain-fed regions, the analysis by independent research organisation Centre for Sustainable Agriculture (CSA) found. Based on state-wise suicide rates per 100,000 agricultural population using data from the NCRB, the study links the crisis in these states to the failure of Bt cotton to deliver on promises of higher yields and pest resistance. Instead, farmers faced sharply rising input costs and greater financial risk. Repeated crop failures, combined with the absence of reliable price support, pushed many small and marginal farmers into chronic debt.
LOBBYWATCH
Dark PR attacks on critics of 10-billion-dollar biotech Goliath, Colossal Biosciences
In its October issue, TIME magazine introduced “The World’s Most Influential Rising Stars”, featuring “100 emerging leaders from around the world who are shaping the future”. One of them is Ben Lamm, whom TIME credits with bringing back the dire wolf from extinction “after over 10,000 years” through genetic engineering. Lamm’s write-up, penned by synthetic biology pioneer George Church, doesn’t hold back: “Ben Lamm’s vision is colossal. Starting from scratch in 2021, Ben – the CEO and my co-founder at de-extinction startup Colossal Biosciences – has corralled unprecedented resources to realize his vision of restoring extinct species to our world”. However, Lamm and his company – far from resurrecting any extinct species – have actually engaged in a series of carefully orchestrated and highly deceptive publicity stunts that are damaging distractions from genuine conservation. And some of those who’ve pointed this out have been subjected to a vicious campaign of intimidation that has included legal threats, orchestrated smears, and weaponised copyright claims. Jonathan Matthews of GMWatch reports.
Faking it without making it: The de-extinction disinfo campaign manager’s history of hype 
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Jonathan Matthews of GMWatch looks into the business background of Ben Lamm (see above), who founded Colossal with the Harvard geneticist George Church, and why it might cast light on how Colossal came to be built around what the geneticist Adam Rutherford calls “a con, full of gloss, bullshit and ghoulish greed”. Matthews shows how Lamm has a history of successfully hyping up “world-changing” ventures in the media that ultimately lead nowhere, as illustrated by his previous company Hypergiant, which was promoted as “the company to transport humanity to a future of ‘smart cities, flying cars, a cure for cancer and longer lives’”, as well as having the techno-fix to “take on climate change”. But as with de-extinction, cheerleading such false techno-fixes in the media distracts from real attempts to address biodiversity loss and climate change.
“The GMO industry is based on a unique economy, that of the eternally renewed promise”
That’s the headline of an excellent article by the journalist Stéphane Foucart in Le Monde. He writes: “In 1996, the first generation of genetically modified seeds appeared in North American fields, leaving the European Union (EU) rather sceptical about the industry's promises. Three decades later, the EU has changed and is preparing to open the door wide to ‘new GMOs’ – plants derived from ‘new genomic techniques’ (NGTs). These could enter the market without environmental or health risk assessments, without traceability, without consumer labelling, and without any provisions for coexistence with conventional crops... The promoters of these new technologies promise reduced inputs, higher yields, crops adapted to high temperatures, droughts, pathogens, etc. But there is a sense of déjà vu here: in the late 1990s, the same arguments, sometimes word for word, were put forward by the promoters of the first generations of GMOs. Thirty years later, what GMOs have done to American agriculture – which has widely adopted them – is the opposite.”
More than 300 big agriculture lobbyists take part in COP30 climate talks
The COP30 climate talks ended in November 2025. More than 300 industrial agriculture lobbyists participated at the talks taking place in Belém in the Brazilian Amazon, where the industry is the leading cause of deforestation. See also this for Bayer’s COP30 contribution.
GMO APPROVALS AND EXPANSION
GM Purple Tomato seeds and fruit approved in Canada
The GM Purple Tomato, which contains snapdragon genes, has been approved in Canada, meaning it could appear in grocery stores at any time. GM purple tomato seeds in small packets can also now be purchased online by growers in Canada. It is already on sale in the US. For the uncertainties around the health impact of this genetically engineered tomato, the history of wildly misleading claims used to promote it, and the food safety questions that remain, see this.
GM Purple Tomato approved in Australia
The Office of the Gene Technology Regulator and Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) have now both approved the GM Purple Tomato in Australia. It can be sold commercially, grown, and eaten there. Prior to importing GM Purple Tomato as seeds, plants or fruit, an import permit from the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (Biosecurity) would also be needed. Separate approval would be required in the Australian state of Tasmania, which maintains a strict state-wide ban on the commercial release of GM crops.
Are GM purple tomatoes coming to British supermarkets?
Cathie Martin and her colleague Jonathan Jones, a geneticist at the Sainsbury Laboratory in Norwich, plan to apply to the UK Food Standards Agency for their GM Purple Tomato to go on sale in England. According to a report in the Times, they hope it will be “a test case to change the rules blocking genetically modified food” (though in fact nothing blocks the sale of authorised GM foods in the UK apart from retailer and consumer rejection). As the tomato is older-style GM, engineered with snapdragon genes, and is not the type of gene-edited GMO called by the UK government a "precision bred organism", it will have to be labelled as GM. Jones said: “We could theoretically achieve the changes in the purple tomato using genetic editing rather than the classic GM method but it would not be easy. It could take another five years. We have already waited 20 years. Both Cathie and I are in our early 70s and we are not willing to wait another five years to get to the place we already are.” An archived version of the paywalled Times article is available here. See also an excellent article by Leonie Nimmo of GM Freeze on the history of deceptive health claims made for the tomato.
GM herbicide-tolerant Bt cotton seeds illegally promoted in India
GMO herbicide-tolerant Bt cotton seeds are being pushed in the Indian state of Telangana. A farmers’ Commission chairman has cautioned farmers against the use of the banned seeds and glyphosate as they pose serious risks to agriculture, soil health and human safety.
PATENTS
Bayer, Corteva control vast majority of GMO seed patents
Just two companies — Bayer, the German conglomerate, and Corteva Agrisciences, which spun off from DowDuPont in 2018 — control the vast majority of patents related to genetically engineered crops. They own just under 80% of these patents, according to US Department of Agriculture research. Bayer and Corteva both own thousands of patents related to seed. The two companies also control large swaths of pesticide markets. A third chemical company, Syngenta, also owns many corn and soybean patents. The USDA has said the concentration in intellectual property has led to fewer choices for farmers. It has also led to less innovation in the industry and higher seed costs for farmers, the USDA has said. (This article is not new but it's still highly relevant.)
European Patent Office turns its back on EU decisions 
Recent decisions by the European Patent Office (EPO) show that existing bans on the patenting of seeds are insufficient to stop the monopolisation of natural genetic resources, reports No Patents on Seeds. The group says despite the ban on patenting plants obtained from “essentially biological processes”, naturally occurring plant genes continue to be patented as inventions. As a result, plants bred using these genes also fall within the scope of the patents.
Just 7 patents affect 145 conventionally bred plant varieties
Research by No Patents on Seeds revealed that the European Patent Office (EPO) granted around 40 patents claiming conventional breeding in 2025. Seven of these patents impact 145 conventionally bred plant varieties. They are included in an industry database (PINTO), which lists conventionally bred plant varieties impacted by patents and on the market. Unlike other plant varieties, these plants may not be used by other breeders without a licence agreement. One of the patents was granted to ChemChina/Syngenta and is especially worrying as it affects 125 maize varieties.
Patent on maize with native traits upheld
The decision of 6 November by the European Patent Office (EPO) with regard to an opposition filed against a patent granted to the German company KWS only provides for minor changes, reports No Patents on Seeds. The EPO was supposed to apply a new rule in this case that is intended to exclude patents on plants obtained from classical breeding. However, this new decision means that the patent will still cover the maize plants obtained from the selection of naturally occurring gene variants. No Patents on Seeds is demanding that the EU take strong action to clarify that patent law only allows patents on methods of genetic engineering. Current EPO practice needs to be stopped.

Coming to your neighbourhood soon? Seriously risky outdoor gene editing

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Some scientists who argue for deregulation deny outdoor gene editing is possible. But patents and the scientific literature tell a very different story. Report: Claire Robinson

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Review 594: Glyphosate and Other Toxics

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This Review leads with the disturbing news that the director of the Ramazzini Institute, which led the recent Global Glyphosate Study, has been fired, with no reason given (CORPORATE CAPTURE). We cover developments regarding Bayer’s desperate attempts to get legal immunity against lawsuits brought by people who have been harmed by the company’s pesticides (LEGAL DEVELOPMENTS), plus the latest GLYPHOSATE RESEARCH and the ever-growing OPPOSITION TO GLYPHOSATE around the world. There are also sections on GLUFOSINATE, 2,4-D AND DICAMBA – other toxic herbicides used on GM crops – as well the latest news on PESTICIDES IN GENERAL AND OTHER TOXICS.

CORPORATE CAPTURE
Outrage at European science centre as director ousted after study on glyphosate
A leading European chemical safety research academy, the Ramazzini Institute, has ousted the director of its cancer research centre after the director led an extensive testing programme into the safety of the pesticide glyphosate, sparking concerns about chemical industry influence into what has been an independent research institution. Dr Daniele Mandrioli’s dismissal and the suspicion that it is tied to his work on glyphosate has roiled scientific circles. Members of Collegium Ramazzini, a scientific academy of physicians and scientists from 45 countries, said in a statement that the process of terminating Mandrioli was “non-transparent” and “secretive”. Dr Philip Landrigan, who is head of the International Scientific Advisory Committee of the Ramazzini Institute, described Mandrioli as a “superb scientist” and complained in a letter that the committee had not been consulted on the termination. “Dr Mandrioli… has been subjected to vicious attacks by the chemical industry because the findings of the Institute’s independent research have cost these companies money and hurt their bottom line. The attacks on Dr Mandrioli have increased in intensity in recent months since publication of the results of the Global Glyphosate Study, which found that glyphosate causes dose-related increases in cancer at multiple anatomic sites in experimental animals, most notably increases in leukemia,” he wrote.
Journal finally retracts key Roundup cancer study reliant on Monsanto research and ghostwriting 
Just two days after President Donald Trump’s administration sided with the maker of glyphosate-based Roundup over cancer victims in a US Supreme Court case (see LEGAL DEVELOPMENTS, below), the scientific journal Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology retracted a landmark 25-year-old study on the pesticide’s supposed safety, on the grounds of ethical concerns involving Monsanto and questions about the validity and independence of its findings. In the retraction notice, the journal’s editor-in-chief cited undisclosed Monsanto ghostwriting, reliance almost exclusively on Monsanto-generated data, and failure to incorporate other available toxicity and carcinogenicity studies. Bayer, which bought Monsanto in 2018, maintains that the weedkiller can be used safely and is not carcinogenic. However, the company faces thousands of lawsuits from people who developed cancer after exposure to its glyphosate products. The retraction stems from the US litigation, which in 2017 revealed Monsanto correspondence about the study. The study has been a cornerstone of regulatory decision making on the safety of glyphosate. 
A reckoning for corporate-backed science?
Wisner Baum, the law firm that successfully brought the first Roundup cancer lawsuit to trial and which has helped expose Monsanto’s internal communications during such trials, points out that for decades, regulators and industry groups relied on the recently retracted glyphosate safety study (see item above). An analysis showed it ranked in the top 0.1% of glyphosate-related studies by citation count and that regulators repeatedly relied on its conclusions in deciding to keep glyphosate on the market without stronger health warnings. Put more simply, regulatory policy and risk communication were shaped for decades by a paper whose independence and methodology are now formally discredited. And the paper may not be the last glyphosate article to face scrutiny. Researchers who petitioned for this retraction have already asked another journal to withdraw a paper over similar concerns about undisclosed Monsanto involvement. Toxicologists and public health experts warn that multiple glyphosate reviews and commentaries may have been shaped, to varying degrees, by company input that was not transparent to readers or regulators.
Is journal an industry platform for “corporate messaging dressed up as peer-reviewed science”?
The journal Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology, which retracted the landmark glyphosate safety study (see items above), is itself systematically corrupt, according to reporter Paul Thacker. He sets out a history that shows it is a journal specifically designed to legitimise industry-funded research defending “tobacco, pesticides, chemicals, endocrine disruptors, air pollution”. He also points out that the 2016 National Academies report used to this day to promote corporate messaging on GMO crops is “littered with studies published in Reg Tox Pharm –  industry’s  favorite journal”. Thacker concludes the journal “has long polluted the scientific literature and harmed Americans. It should be shut down”.
How the chemical industry doctored a new EU approval of glyphosate
A cross-border investigation examined how glyphosate, the world’s most controversial herbicide, secured a ten-year re-approval in the EU despite mounting scientific and legal concerns. The investigation revealed just how closely the chemical industry steers the scientific process meant to regulate it. An international team examined thousands of pages of documents obtained through freedom of information requests. Scientists, regulators, and civil society experts were interviewed to reconstruct how the Glyphosate Renewal Group – a consortium of manufacturers – helped define the very evidence base used by the national pesticide authorities and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Patterns emerged: national regulators repeatedly echoed industry phrasing, dismissed independent peer-reviewed studies, and relied on data prepared by private consultancies. What should have been a transparent scientific evaluation instead became a closed process shaped by commercial interests.
The corporate capture of MAHA: How the chemical lobby is stealing our health again
ImagePaediatrician Lee Evslin writes: “For months leading up to the 2024 election, the ‘Make America Healthy Again’ (MAHA) movement captivated a nation overwhelmed by chronic diseases... I found hope in a powerful promise regarding our food supply: we would finally stop poisoning our own people. We were told that the new administration would take a sledgehammer to the corrupt alliance between federal regulators and the chemical industry.” But, he says, the MAHA movement “has been hijacked. The final MAHA policy drafts barely mention pesticides. The administration is asking the Supreme Court to shield Bayer using fraudulent science” and is claiming that “because the EPA approved a pesticide label, no state court or jury can blame a company for not adding warnings beyond what the EPA required. This is a stunning betrayal. The MAHA movement was built on the premise that the EPA is captured by industry. Yet now, the administration is arguing that this same captured agency should be the supreme authority, overruling every state judge and jury in America.” He says Bayer “are trying to change the rules of the game so that they can never be held accountable for the harm their products cause. They are leveraging Republican-driven efforts to decrease EPA oversight, creating a regulatory vacuum where the federal government doesn’t protect us, and the state governments aren’t allowed to.”  He says the MAHA slogan has revealed itself to be a ‘Trojan horse’: “The very voters who turned out to demand safer food and water have been handed a policy agenda that protects the poisoners.”
MAHA-washing
During Lee Zeldin’s time as Trump’s EPA director, the agency has overseen the roll-back of regulations on toxic chemicals and other pollutants. It has also refused to take any action to rein in the use of pesticides like glyphosate, dicamba, atrazine, chlorpyrifos and paraquat. But, writes Nathan Donley, in the face of a MAHA backlash that saw a strong effort from grassroots MAHA activists to remove Zeldin from his post, he’s trying to rebrand from “a hapless industry lackey running Trump’s pro-pollution EPA” to “Lee Zeldin, science advocate and MAHA champion!” Zeldin’s goal is clear, says Donley: to appease the MAHA crowd while ensuring that Big Ag can continue to use its toxic pesticides. 
From industry to US EPA: Lobbyist now oversees pesticide rules
Kyle Kunkler was the top lobbyist for the US soybean industry, boasting of helping to keep the controversial herbicide dicamba in use on GMO crops. Now he’s helping keep it in use at the EPA. In June, Kunkler was named the Trump administration’s top official in charge of pesticide policy at the EPA. Less than a month later, the EPA proposed allowing the use of herbicides containing dicamba, a chemical that has twice had its use restricted by a federal court.
Pesticides Coalition: Canada must choose science and health over lobbyists
A coalition of nearly 30 civil society and academic organisations is urgingCanada’s federal government to halt plans announced in the latest budget to weaken the country’s pesticide process, and instead launch a long-overdue public debate and comprehensive reform. Last fall yet more evidence emerged of Bayer exerting significant influence over pesticide approvals in Canada, with its pesticide regulator collaborating with the company to thwart an impending ban of a class of neonicotinoid pesticides harmful to humans and deadly to bees. 
LEGAL DEVELOPMENTS
Supreme Court will hear appeal by maker of popular Roundup weedkiller to block thousands of lawsuits
The US Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal from Bayer to block thousands of state lawsuits alleging it failed to warn people that its popular weedkiller could cause cancer. The justices will consider whether the Environmental Protection Agency’s approval of the Roundup weedkiller without a cancer warning should rule out the state court claims. The Trump administration has weighed in on Bayer’s behalf, reversing the Biden administration’s position and putting it at odds with some supporters of the MAHA agenda who oppose giving the company the legal immunity it seeks.
Pesticide legal immunity bill wilts in Tennessee House committee
A Republican-backed bill that would give broader liability protection to pesticide and herbicide companies such as Bayer, the owner of Roundup, has faltered in a Tennessee House committee. Rep. Rusty Grills declined to present House Bill 809 in the House Judiciary Committee even though numerous supporters from the Farm Bureau packed the hearing room. Grills requested that it be taken off notice. The bill could be revived, but so many questions have been raised about the measure that it isn’t expected to be brought back for consideration.
Pesticide group spends big in Idaho but couldn’t pass legal immunity 
A group backing legal immunity for pesticide manufacturers in Idaho failed to see its sponsored legislation passed in 2025 despite spending more on lobbying than any other group in the state. As of December, the Missouri-based Modern Ag Alliance had spent more than $620,000 on lobbying efforts; four times as much as the second-largest lobbying group. However, House Bill 303, which would have granted immunity for pesticide makers, failed without a hearing. 
Will Iowa lawmakers try again to protect Bayer?
Bayer has paid out billions in settlements of Roundup-cancer lawsuits, although the glyphosate market is predicted to top $11 billion by 2030. During the past two legislative sessions, some Republicans tried to pass a bill shielding Bayer from “failure to warn” lawsuits brought by sick glyphosate users. Slap on a federal warning label and they’re good. Most of the Roundup comes from a plant in Muscatine, Iowa. The company says it may have to shut the joint down without legislative help. Iowa House Speaker Pat Grassley said lawmakers will again consider shielding Bayer during the upcoming 2026 session. But in a strongly worded article, journalist Todd Dorman says it's a “terrible idea”. Encouragingly, GMWatch has been told by Iowa insiders that there is little support for it among lawmakers.
Bayer weighs Roundup exit as cancer legal bill nears $18 billion
Last year, a Georgia jury punished Bayer to the tune of almost $2.1 billion after a man who had used the company’s glyphosate-based weedkiller Roundup developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Bayer has coughed up more than $10 billion in legal costs over a product it inherited last decade with its $63 billion acquisition of Monsanto. Its legal battles are far from over, with Bayer facing more than 60,000 outstanding claims from US plaintiffs who say the chemical caused their cancer. The litigation has cast such a massive cloud over Bayer’s stock, which is down more than 70% since the Monsanto deal, that CEO Bill Anderson claims to be considering whether the company should even make glyphosate any more.
Bayer’s Monsanto must pay $185 million after state Supreme Court restores chemical leak verdict
A US court has reinstated a $185 million verdict against Bayer’s Monsanto unit over chemical contamination at a Washington state school, reviving a major case involving toxic substances. Teachers claimed they fell ill after exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) – industrial chemicals produced by Monsanto and now banned for their health risks.
Monsanto lawsuit awards Chicago suburbs millions as settlement from PCB pollution
In December, Illinois courts announced a $120 million settlement in a lawsuit against Monsanto. Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul filed the lawsuit in 2022, alleging that the company had knowledge of causing widespread environmental damage in several Chicago suburbs. The attorney general’s office gathered evidence of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) infecting air, soil, and waterways in Illinois. According to the lawsuit, Monsanto dumped hazardous waste into sewers and landfills knowing its toxicity. PCBs can cause liver damage, reproductive issues, and immune system damage, and are linked to various types of cancer.
GLYPHOSATE RESEARCH    
England: Cancer-linked pesticide glyphosate found in eight out of thirteen children’s playgrounds
A new study has found residues of the weedkiller glyphosate and its toxic breakdown product – AMPA – in English playgrounds. Pesticide Action Network UK tested samples of soil and plant material and swabbed children’s play equipment in thirteen playgrounds across three English counties and two London boroughs. None of the playgrounds were particularly close to agricultural fields, suggesting that the contamination is likely to originate from the widespread use of glyphosate by UK councils to remove unwanted plants in public spaces. Prof Michael Antoniou, a specialist in molecular genetics and toxicology at Kings College London and UK contributor to the Global Glyphosate Study, said, “Our studies have shown that exposure to glyphosate herbicides is a significant risk factor for the development of a range of serious health conditions, including fatty liver and kidney disease and, most worryingly, a wide range of cancers including leukaemias. The assertion by government regulators that glyphosate is ‘safe’ does not stand up to latest scientific scrutiny, which shows that a ‘safe’ dose of glyphosate is, at present, unknown. Thus, all efforts should be made to reduce glyphosate herbicide use in both agricultural and urban settings, and to eliminate unnecessary routes of exposure, especially for children.” 
Press coverage of glyphosate playground study
The playground study (see above) got widespread media coverage, including in the Independent, the Guardian, and the Daily Mail. 
Rise of cancer among young adults in the US [GMO] Corn Belt
There’s an unsettling shift in cancer diagnoses in America, with rates for young adults in their 20s, 30s and 40s trending up even as overall cancer rates decline – and with geography a key characteristic in who falls ill young. Cancer rates among young adults in the [GMO] Corn Belt in the Midwest are rising more rapidly than in the country as a whole, a Washington Post analysis reveals. The six leading states for corn production – Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, Minnesota, Indiana and Kansas – had the same cancer frequency as the rest of the nation for young adults and the overall population when state-level tracking began in 1999. In the 2000s they began to diverge, and since 2015 the states have had a significantly higher cancer rate among those aged 15 to 49. In the latest data from 2022, those states have a rate 5% higher for young adults and 5% higher for the overall population. At the centre of the controversy is glyphosate.
Synergistic effects from glyphosate and urea fertiliser magnify earthworm poisoning
A study of earthworms highlights how chemical mixtures can have both synergistic and species-specific effects, threatening the soil microbiome and overall soil health. In exposing two species to the weedkiller glyphosate alone and in combination with urea, a form of synthetic nitrogen fertiliser, the researchers found enhanced toxicity with co-exposure as well as varying health effects between the two species. These results emphasise the need to test a wide variety of non-target organisms for impacts from environmental contaminants.
Glyphosate linked with poor bone mineral density, osteoporosis, and fractures
A human study in a US population shows a link between glyphosate exposure (as measured in urine) and poor bone mineral density, osteoporosis, and fractures, primarily in postmenopausal adult females. The researchers point out that in a previous study in rats, the total burden of glyphosate seven days after administration (approximately 1% of the administered dose) was principally absorbed in the bone tissue. Regarding the new findings, the researchers caution that due to the study design, the observed associations are not necessarily causal; further research is needed to investigate causality.
Glyphosate and chlorpyrifos pesticide mixtures disrupt defences against cancer
A new vitro study shows that environmentally relevant doses of glyphosate and chlorpyrifos-based pesticide mixtures disrupt immune system functions that are critical for the control of cancer.
OPPOSITION TO GLYPHOSATE
Scientist, farmer, and campaigner all call time on glyphosate
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Glyphosate, used on over 80% of GM crops worldwide, is up for renewal in Great Britain in December 2026, the date having been extended from the originally planned December 2025. In January the Oxford Real Farming Conference (ORFC) kicked off with a debate on glyphosate. The ORFC debate was chaired by Helen Browning of the organic certification body, the Soil Association, and was enlivened by the mix of speakers from different backgrounds: Martin Lines, farmer and CEO of the Nature Friendly Farming Network; Prof Michael Antoniou, whose research group at King’s College London became a leader in glyphosate toxicology; Georgie Bray, farm manager of the RSPB’s (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) Hope Farm; and Nick Mole of Pesticide Action Network UK. There was a surprising degree of consensus among the speakers that ways to reduce and potentially eliminate glyphosate use must be found. The BBC radio programme Farming Today did an excellent interview with the speakers. 
First Nation bans herbicide use across north-central British Columbia
A First Nation in north-central British Columbia (B.C.), Canada says it is banning the use of herbicides across all of its territory. The Lheidli T’enneh First Nation says the ban is being put into place because of the negative impacts herbicides, and glyphosate in particular, have had on the environment and wildlife for which they are stewards.
California, USA: “Do you use Roundup?” Why so many Napa vineyards have abandoned Monsanto’s controversial weedkiller
The nonprofit Napa Green, which provides a prominent sustainability certification to Napa Valley vineyards, has announced a major milestone: All 101 vineyards with the Napa Green certification have officially stopped using Roundup, the controversial weedkiller that’s been shown to cause cancer, according to numerous studies.
The NYT’s pro-Big Ag pundit gets it right on manure, but misses the mark on herbicides
New York Times journalist Michael Grunwald has emerged as arguably the US’s most prominent commentator on the future of agriculture. In a detailed article, a group of Johns Hopkins University experts say he’s right to highlight the environmental crisis caused by unchecked manure pollution from intensive meat production facilities (CAFOs), but wrong to defend the safety of Roundup herbicide in the face of overwhelming scientific evidence that it’s dangerous to health. University of Texas research professor Raj Patel says Grunwald's “reliance on pesticide industry talking points gets the debunking it deserves” from the JHU  experts.
It’s only Roundup: Glyphosate’s safety myth
Midwest farmer Rob Faux was exposed to Roundup herbicide being sprayed by a neighbour farmer, who told him, “It’s okay, it’s only Roundup” – in other words, safety was assured. Years later, and having lost a kidney to cancer, Faux denounces this notion as false: “The cracks in the myth of safety for glyphosate are growing.” 
GLUFOSINATE, 2,4-D, AND DICAMBA
End of an era? Glufosinate’s tight grip on waterhemp finally breaks
Is this the end of an era? Glufosinate’s “last herbicide standing” status is compromised by confirmed populations of glufosinate-resistant waterhemp weeds. Glufosinate-tolerant (LibertyLink) GMO crops are widely grown in the US due to problems with glyphosate-resistant weeds. Waterhemp is considered a “driver weed” for many row crop growers across the US Midwest and South due to its ability to severely impact yields, with losses of up to 74% in corn and 56% in soybeans.
France halts imports of food with traces of banned pesticides, including glufosinate
France has officialised a ban on food imports containing traces of five pesticides currently banned in the EU, a move aimed at easing farmers’ opposition to the Mercosur trade deal with four South American nations. The five substances targeted include glufosinate, a herbicide widely used on potatoes as well as GMO LibertyLink crops, plus the fungicides mancozeb, thiophanate-methyl, carbendazim and benomyl, used on produce ranging from avocados and mangos to wheat and soybeans.  
Increased pesticide use on GM crops in Illinois is killing native oaks
While the amount of acres of GMO soybeans and corn has remained stable for the past 25 years, the use of pesticides in Illinois has doubled. The state’s oldest trees are getting sick from the drift. After only five years of commercial use of GMO Roundup Ready seeds, dozens of weeds had evolved widespread resistance to glyphosate, becoming superweeds. In response, farmers used more of the herbicide or switched to other products, such as 2,4-D and dicamba. However, a 2024 study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign indicates that the increase in pesticide use is causing significant damage to prairie grasses and trees across the state, particularly native oaks, hickory and box elders.
PESTICIDES IN GENERAL AND OTHER TOXICS
“I was contaminated”: Study reveals how hard it is to avoid pesticide exposure
For decades, Khoji Wesselius has noticed the oily scent of pesticides during spraying periods when the wind has blown through his tiny farming village in a rural corner of the Netherlands. Now, after volunteering in an experiment to count how many such substances people are subjected to, Wesselius and his wife are one step closer to understanding the consequences of living among chemical-sprayed fields of seed potato, sugar beet, wheat, rye and onion. “We were shocked,” said Wesselius, who had exposure to eight different pesticides through his skin, with even more chemicals found through tests of his blood, urine and stool. “I was contaminated by 11 sorts of pesticides. My wife, who is more strict in her organic nourishment, had seven sorts of pesticides.” According to a new study, even people who live far from farms are exposed to pesticides from non-dietary sources – including banned substances. 
Neonicotinoid insecticides damage male fertility, researchers say
Neonicotinoid pesticides, the world’s most widely used class of insecticides, are linked to male reproductive toxicity in (human-relevant) lab animals, especially at higher doses, according to a new scientific review of two decades of evidence.
With neonicotinoid pesticide ban, France’s birds make a tentative recovery – study
Insect-eating bird populations in France appear to be making a tentative recovery after a ban on bee-harming pesticides, according to the first study to examine how wildlife is returning in Europe.
Toxic chemicals in global food system causing $3 trillion a year in health and environmental costs – new report
A failure to regulate four groups of toxic chemicals widely used across the global food system is costing between $1.4–2.2 trillion in annual healthcare costs (2-3% of global GDP), plus at least 0.6 trillion more in environmental damages, a new report reveals. “Invisible Ingredients: Tackling Toxic Chemicals in the Food System”, from systems change advisory Systemiq funded by the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, presents the most comprehensive global assessment to date of the combined health, environmental and economic impacts of phthalates, bisphenols, pesticides and PFAS within the global food system. 
EU Commission proposes unlimited pesticide approvals
A draft Omnibus regulation on food and feed reveals that the European Commission’s DG SANTE is attempting to deregulate all chemical pesticides. This comes under the guise of “simplification”, intended to facilitate access to the market to safer bio-pesticides. The proposal would grant indefinite EU approval of pesticide active substances, while removing the obligation for Member States to consider the most recent independent scientific evidence during national pesticide product authorisations. This industry-friendly move will drastically lower the level of protection of citizens’ health and the environment.

Review 593: New GMOs

Details

 

Welcome to our Review, which covers the latest developments on new GMOs, or “new genomic techniques”, as some like to call them. The EU is getting dangerously close to deregulating new gene-edited plants (EU DEREGULATION PROPOSAL), in the face of massive opposition from businesses and citizens and despite alarming new scientific findings (BIOSAFETY AND REGULATION) that gene editing is even more disruptive to gene function than was previously believed. We also have a section on the NEW ZEALAND DEREGULATION PROPOSAL, which is both deeply unpopular and scientifically indefensible.

One of the major sticking points in the EU deregulation negotiations has been the issue of PATENTS, which threaten to tie up our seeds, foods, and farming in a corporate-controlled legal nightmare. Our new commentaries on the topic include a rundown of what’s coming for food and farming if an influx of new GMOs (all of which are patented) comes onto the market as a result of deregulation.

Recent developments in GM AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE emphasise the urgent need for rigorous regulation of new GMOs, as dangerous novel organisms could be created through this marriage of technologies (watch out for the upcoming webinar on this). GENE EDITING MYTHS showcases a new report that debunks one of the major myths of gene editing – that it “turbo-charges nature” and delivers new improved crops quickly and efficiently. Based on the documented case studies, the reality is very different.

SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY AND CONSERVATION covers the misguided embrace of synthetic biology and other types of genetic engineering by a major conservation organisation that clearly doesn’t understand the issues. INDIA’S GENE-EDITED RICE SCANDAL tells a sorry tale of lies, cover-ups, and attempted gagging of scientists by the Indian government and a major research organisation, all intended to hide the less than impressive performance of gene-edited rice varieties. 

Finally, UK GMO DEREGULATION gives the latest updates since the government passed the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Regulations 2025.

EU DEREGULATION PROPOSAL
EU Member States approve the deregulation of GMOs obtained by new GM techniques
In the Committee of Permanent Representatives (COREPER) meeting of 19 December, a majority of EU Member States approved the provisional trilogue agreement on the deregulation of GMO plants obtained by new genomic techniques (GMO-NGTs). European Coordination Via Campesina (ECVC), representing small and medium-scale farmers, said the move “ignores farmers’ and small and medium-sized seed producers’ concerns on patents, farmers’ rights on seeds, the protection of organic and GMO-free sectors, consumers’ right to information, and the risks for human health and the environment. A group of 8 countries (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia) have recognised those legitimate concerns and did not support this dangerous text.” 

ECVC denounced the decision as a “strategic error for Europe’s food and seed sovereignty and the future of EU agriculture, which will only benefit to a handful of patent-holding seed corporations, reduce agrobiodiversity, increase the prices of seeds for farmers, and deceive consumers by removing the labelling of final products”.
Bayer’s ambitions boosted by relaxation of EU gene-edited crop rules 
Bayer believes looser new GMO regulations in the EU will vindicate its troubled acquisition of US rival Monsanto – which has halved its market value. The change is strategically important as Bayer owns among the largest plant genetic data sets in the world following the Monsanto acquisition. Bayer has identified genetically modifying wheat as a particular target. Beyond Europe, Bayer views Africa as a crucial long-term market. Bayer’s chief lobbyist Matthias Berninger said, “If Europe and the US align on this technology, we can bring it to Africa far faster than before.”

Decision comes at expense of farmers, consumers, environment
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Franziska Achterberg of Save Our Seeds commented on the COREPER decision: “Now it is confirmed: most EU governments want to allow untested and unlabelled GM plants to be released into the environment and onto our plates, putting both people and nature at risk. In doing so, they are siding with multinational biotech corporations – at the expense of farmers, the food sector, consumers, and the environment. It is now up to the European Parliament to reject this deal.”  Image © European Union (permission for use granted for reporting purposes)
Background to the deal
Some background on the lead-up to the EU deal (see above) is here, here, here, and here.
Now the European Parliament must save GM labelling – GMO-free industry association
Alexander Hissting, managing director of the Association for GMO-Free Food (VLOG), commented on the deregulation move: “It is right and important that Germany did not agree to the ill-conceived and economically and consumer-damaging abolition of mandatory GMO labelling in the EU. The German government should now throw its full political weight behind protecting the economy and consumers in order to stop the deregulation of genetic engineering despite [the] majority in the trial vote in Brussels. Now the European Parliament (EP) must save genetic engineering labelling. It can still overturn the proposed legislation in its vote in early 2026. This is exactly what MEPs should do, as they already called for the retention of mandatory GMO labelling and the exclusion of patents on genetically modified plants in their majority position adopted in 2024 – both of which contradict the current proposal.”
Maintain the EU’s GMO labelling, businesses tell MEPs
In an open letter, the German businesses REWE, dm, Alnatura, dennree and Rapunzel called on MEPs Manfred Weber, Jessica Polfjärd and Stefan Köhler (all from the European People's Party, EPP) to retain the full labelling requirement for new genetic engineering as well as older style genetic engineering. 
GMO-free seed production under threat
Without GMO-free seeds, a GMO-free agricultural and food industry is not possible. Yet there has been little discussion of the potential impact on GMO-free seed production of the European Commission’s planned deregulation of new genomic techniques (NGTs), write Eva Gelinsky and Lena Hüttmann of the GMO-free seeds organisation IG Saatgut. Under the EU’s current GMO laws, those applying for authorisation for a product containing GMOs must also provide the information necessary to develop a detection method. Under the planned deregulation of Category 1 NGT (new GM) plants, the mandatory submission of the relevant genomic data and the development of detection methods will no longer be required. Nor would companies be required to provide reference material. Without detection methods, it would not be possible to check for contamination in seeds.
Poll: 82% of Danes oppose GMO deregulation, at odds with government position
A poll by YouGov indicates that 82% of Danes say the EU should stop its GMO deregulation efforts and maintain the current strict rules to protect food safety, the environment, and consumers’ right to choose. Meanwhile, 84% of Danes aren’t aware that the Danish government supports the EU Commission’s plan to weaken GMO regulations. This poll comes as the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers are in the final negotiation rounds to determine if new GMO products will be exempt from labelling and traceability requirements and if patents will be allowed on new genomic techniques.
Two films on new GMO deregulation in the EU and the consequences
Two excellent films on the EU proposal to deregulate new GMOs have emerged from Denmark. The Danish government is firmly in favour of deregulation. But these films make clear that such a move has no popular mandate and that the government has only maintained its stance by ignoring the dissenting views of farmers, civil society, scientists and experts who don’t want a GMO free-for-all.
“New Technologies and Denmark’s Food: Is genetically engineered farming the answer to our food crisis?”
In Danish with English subtitles   
With French subtitles
With Dutch subtitles
“The Living Solution – Challenging GMO deregulation” 
Isabelle Denaro’s documentary film, in Danish with English subtitles
BIOSAFETY AND REGULATION
Gene editing disrupts multiple gene functions through large-scale epigenetic changes in a way that persists through successive cell generations
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CRISPR/Cas gene-editing unintentionally disrupts multiple gene functions in a way that is passed to successive cell generations, a study shows. The disruption followed repair of a DNA double-strand break at the intended gene edit sites. Cells organise their DNA in a structure called chromatin that is involved in the control of which genes are turned on or off. The authors of the study investigated whether chromatin structure fully recovers after DNA damage is repaired. They found that even after the DNA was repaired, the chromatin of the affected regions remained misfolded and showed reduced expression of multiple genes, and these changes were passed on to daughter cells. DNA damage therefore leaves lasting marks on genome expression. The authors call this phenomenon “chromatin fatigue”. The study was carried out in human cells, but the effects found, in all likelihood, will also occur in plants and animals. The findings have serious implications for the safety and performance of these organisms – and how they should be regulated.
GMO proponents say new GMOs need “proper oversight”
In a fascinating article, two GMO proponents – one of whom used to work for Monsanto – write that gene-edited crops are no safer than GMOs, and fast-tracking regulatory approval could trigger a costly backlash. They write: “While there isn’t anything uniquely dangerous about gene editing, there isn’t anything uniquely safe about it either. With both gene editing and transgenic methods, you’re rewriting the genome — and what matters is the impact of the new genetic content, not where the underlying DNA 'letters' came from. Whatever methods are used, genetic engineering can deliver enormous benefits, but brings real risks – and requires proper oversight to ensure safety and maintain public confidence.” 

Note, however, that these authors favour product-based regulation, which focuses only on the intended GM trait and ignores the massive DNA damage caused by gene editing and associated processes, as well as any unintended effects of the intended genetic changes. What's needed is process- and product-based regulation, which looks at both intended and unintended changes. This is the type of regulation that the EU has had in place for years and that the EU pro-deregulation lobby is currently trying to overturn for gene-edited GMOs. 
Long-read whole genome sequencing the only way to confirm absence of foreign DNA in gene-edited products
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Long-read whole genome sequencing is “the only reliable approach to confirm the absence of foreign DNA” in GM gene-edited crops, according to a scientific article in Nature Biotechnology. The article confirms what GMWatch has been saying for years. The article’s uncompromising message, in effect, lays down a challenge to governments that have based their deregulation of gene-edited products on the criterion that they do not contain foreign or “novel” DNA. Addressing the modest (in corporate terms) costs of performing whole genome sequencing, the authors write, “The decision to invest in WGS [whole genome sequencing] should consider the potential costs that may arise if fragments of foreign DNA are detected. We surmise that the cost related to an overlooked transgene fragment may exceed the cost for WGS by orders of magnitude, and the cost of loss of consumer trust may weigh even more heavily.”
GE Honesty podcast: “GMWatch, the global watchdog of the GMO industry” (video podcast)
In a podcast in the GE Honesty series, hosted by New Zealand-based Callum Horler, GMWatch’s Claire Robinson and molecular geneticist Prof Michael Antoniou discuss the lack of safety studies on “new GMOs”, the rebranding of gene editing as “precision breeding”, and the risks associated with deregulation. The conversation emphasises the importance of consumer awareness, transparency, and the need for robust regulations in the face of powerful industry lobbying. The discussion explores science, power, and regulation – and why transparency still matters when it comes to the food on our plates. See other GE Honesty podcasts here. More about GE Honesty here.
European Commission wants to deregulate micro-organisms produced with new GM techniques
Releasing genetically modified viruses, bacteria or yeasts into the environment or industrial sectors (including agri-food) without control and without knowing the risks they may pose seems to be the objective pursued by the European Commission, which appears to be preparing a legislative initiative to deregulate GM micro-organisms (GMMs) produced with new GM techniques (NGTs). Multinationals are working to gain intellectual property rights over living organisms, and micro-organisms are part of the picture. To this end, European experts are being mobilised to provide the European Commission with the reports necessary to justify deregulation.
PATENTS
Enshittification of our food and farms: Patents and new GMOs
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Bayer’s Monsanto has sued COVID-19 vaccine makers Pfizer, BioNTech, and Moderna for patent infringement for using its messenger RNA technology to manufacture their vaccines. The lawsuits allege that the companies copied technology developed by Monsanto back in the 1980s for enhancing protein production in (among other GMOs) GM insecticidal crops, in order to stabilise the genetic material used in their vaccines. For many, the initial reaction may have been cynical amusement at the sight of a corporation that has been furiously lobbying for legal immunity from those it harms, pursuing others through the courts. There is also the irony of Big Biotech (Ag) going after Big Biotech (Pharma) for allegedly stealing their patented technology. But for those familiar with Bayer subsidiary Monsanto’s history of aggressively going after US farmers for supposed patent infringements, there also looms a sense of dread. What’s coming for our seeds, farms, and food if the EU deregulates new gene-edited GMOs, which are covered by multiple patents? It seems certain that the Bayer vs Pfizer et al. lawsuits are a foretaste of the legal barrage that will face Europe’s plant breeders and farmers. The process will be one of the “enshittification” of food and farming, to borrow a term from author and digital rights activist Cory Doctorow.
If new GM plants are natural-like, they shouldn’t be patented – Danish ethics council
The Danish Council on Ethics has issued a statement which addresses GM gene-edited plants. Twelve council members recommend that gene sequences from gene-edited NGT1 plants (which the Commission wants to deregulate based on the assumption that they are equivalent to conventional plants) should not be patentable. Only four council members are in favour of patents on these plants. The 12 members’ arguments include:
* Gene sequences from NGT1 plants are identical to naturally occurring/conventionally bred gene sequences, which is why they are considered non-patentable discoveries.
* Without the breeders’ exemption, patents risk blocking breeders’ free access to genetic plant material.
GMWatch has long pointed out the inconsistency of GMO developers’ claims that gene-edited plants are natural-like while at the same time they are patenting them. Natural products are not legally patentable; to justify a patent, there must be an inventive step. These disingenuous claims are coming back to bite their originators.
GM AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Webinar: “The convergence of NGTs and AI: risks to biodiversity” 
27 January, 14:00–15:30 CET
Before a decision is made on the deregulation of plants derived from new genomic techniques (NGTs, new GM techniques), Testbiotech is inviting political decision makers to look into the future of technological development and consider simple truths. Experts warn that the ongoing convergence of artificial intelligence (AI) and genetic engineering can lead to organisms that “have the potential to produce a set of novel, hard-to-predict effects. Forecasting how bespoke genomes will behave is incredibly difficult.” Once released, the genetic changes “could be out in live beings potentially for millennia, far beyond any control or prediction. They might reverberate down countless generations.” These concerns are also relevant for discussion about NGT plants. The current proposal for future regulation would lead to an accelerated release of NGT1 plants that are largely different to plants known from conventional breeding and can persist, propagate and spread in the environment. Register by emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. (no link in header)
AI-designed viruses: A virologist’s warning (video)
In a video podcast, virologist Simon Wain-Hobson talks about the risks of applying artificial intelligence to virus design. The discussion centres on a project in which researchers used AI to generate novel bacteriophages (viruses that infect and replicate within bacteria). From hundreds of AI-designed candidates, the team synthesised 16 functional viruses. One replicated faster than its natural reference phage, while six showed remarkable genetic stability. Even for Simon, whose career spans decades of studying viral evolution, the results were shocking. He argues that applying AI-driven methods to animal or human viruses could readily generate dangerous new pathogens.
LABELLING OF NEW GMOs
91% of Canadians want gene-edited GMOs labelled
A poll commissioned by the Canadian Health Food Association (CHFA) finds 67% of Canadians say foods produced using gene editing should be considered genetically engineered and 91% believe consumers have the right to know.
GM food without new DNA added will not be labelled in Australia and New Zealand
Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) has approved new definitions for genetically modified food in the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code. Food produced using new GM techniques, including gene editing, will not need to be labelled as “GM” on the food label, if novel DNA or novel protein was not introduced in the process. GE-Free New Zealand spokesperson Jon Carapiet said the weaker labelling requirements took informed choices away from the consumer.
NEW ZEALAND DEREGULATION PROPOSAL
New Zealand’s Gene Tech Bill = more failed GMOs in fields and food (mini video)
In a video interview, Prof Jack Heinemann explains how New Zealand’s Gene Tech Bill would allow for more failed GMOs into the environment, including the ones we didn't intend to make, or even knew we made, because the bill would allow genetic engineering to be carried out in uncontained facilities. Other countries, like Brazil, have zero-tolerance rules for unknown or unapproved GMOs. But this Bill would make New Zealand one of the most relaxed gene-tech regimes in the world.
Who’s really pulling the strings on New Zealand’s Gene Tech Bill?
Who’s really pulling the strings on New Zealand’s Gene Tech Bill? Physicians & Scientists for Global Responsibility (PSGR) have peeled back the curtain – and what they’ve revealed doesn’t match the public narrative. The origins of this bill didn’t just “emerge”. They were shaped, steered, and shepherded by Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) officials with far too much skin in the game. The public were told this was about “innovation”. But the paper trail tells a different story – one where industry-aligned advisers and politicians helped design a law that hands away people's right to know what they’re eating.
Opposition to GMO deregulation in New Zealand, Germany, Philippines
Gatherings were held in Auckland and 28 other locations in New Zealand to stop the Gene Tech Bill, which would deregulate GMOs. In Germany, two farmers handed over 130,000 signatures calling on German ministries to protect GMO-free farming in the GMO deregulation battle. And in Negros Occidental in the Philippines, three Catholic bishops are opposing moves to lift the 18-year GMO ban, calling the proposal irresponsible, unjust, and dangerous.
GENE EDITING MYTHS
Turbo charging nature? The political myth behind gene-editing “speed” claims
A report – “Turbo Charging Nature: The fast promises and slow delivery of gene-edited crops” – reveals that after two decades of hype and heavy public investment, the UK’s flagship gene-editing projects have failed to deliver on their central promise: speed. For years, ministers, biotech developers and government advisers have claimed that gene editing would “turbo charge nature”, speeding up traditional breeding and delivering rapid solutions to climate change, food insecurity and public health. But the report shows that the rhetoric of speed has been a political tool, not a scientific reality – used to justify deregulation, rebrand genetic modification as “precision breeding”, and strip away public oversight. Tracing the development timelines of five high-profile projects – low-asparagine wheat, blight-resistant potatoes, virus-resistant sugar beet, omega-3 camelina and the purple tomato – the report finds that none have reached the UK market despite decades of work and tens of millions of pounds in taxpayer funding. In several cases, conventionally bred varieties have beaten the biotech versions to market, achieving similar or better results without GM. 
SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY AND CONSERVATION
IUCN votes on gene editing in conservation: Biotech lobbyists “win”, nature loses
In mid-October, members of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) voted to reject a moratorium on releasing genetically engineered wild species and, instead, adopted a policy that accepts and seeks to normalise the use of synthetic biology in conservation. It’s a turning point that many see as a betrayal of conservation’s first principles. Delegates at the 2025 World Conservation Congress were asked to vote on two linked motions:
* Motion 133, calling for a moratorium on the release of genetically engineered wild species, was defeated by the narrowest of margins – just one vote – among IUCN members.
* Motion 87, establishing a policy framework for the use of synthetic biology in conservation, was approved in its place.
The result exposes deep divisions within the conservation community over whether genetic engineering has any legitimate role in protecting or restoring ecosystems. 
Also see Save Our Seeds’ analysis, “IUCN deeply split over genetically engineering nature”.
INDIA'S GENE-EDITED RICE SCANDAL
Indian govt’s claims about gene-edited rice varieties don’t stack up, analysis of ICAR data shows
Raising fresh questions about the performance of the two gene-edited rice varieties released by the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, a new analysis of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)’s trial data has revealed that there was no increase in yield and that the varieties were not maturing earlier when compared to the parental varieties, contrary to claims made by the government during their introduction. See also this article, which reveals that one of the gene-edited varieties yielded lower than the non-GM parent.
Why experts are opposing India’s gene-edited rice varieties
The Indian government’s announcement that it will release the two gene-edited rice varieties has prompted criticism from experts. Researcher and agroecology practitioner Soumik Banerjee said: “We are interfering with the DNA. We are removing elements of the DNA without knowing their function. We only talk about the positive results, but we don’t know the negative ones. Nature put those genes there, and we are removing them, saying there are only positive effects. That is not possible.” Dr Krithika Yegna, a biotechnology scientist, said gene editing was still GM and that the method is not foolproof. 
ICAR responds to critics – by smearing and expelling them
Instead of responding with facts to criticisms of the false claims (see above) about gene-edited rice, ICAR has fallen back on the usual ploy of dismissing the critics as anti-development. It has also deployed more drastic – though equally dishonest – tactics. Interestingly, the first criticism came from within ICAR, and ICAR’s response was instant and dramatic. Venugopal Badaravada, a member of the institution’s governing body and general body representing farmers, was summarily expelled and his reputation smeared after he said that the benefits claimed for the two gene-edited rice varieties had not been established.
ICAR gags scientists after row over performance of two new gene-edited rice varieties
The ICAR is evolving organisational guidelines for scientists after a recent controversy over data related to gene-edited rice varieties. These guidelines restrict scientists from sharing their research findings with the media and journals. They also direct scientists to avoid publishing any research papers in international journals until they are fully confident about their findings. GMWatch comments that what ICAR claims is a push to ensure “robust data” is clearly nothing more than a gagging order calculated to prevent the release of data inconvenient to the GMO industry and its friends in government.
UK GMO DEREGULATION
“Precision bred” GMO field trial tracker
The Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Regulations 2025, which Beyond GM is challenging through a judicial review, have become officially operational. Beyond GM says: “We may not see an immediate flow of products on the market, but our new Precision Bred GMO Field Trial Tracker has detected a last-minute scramble to get more experimental field trials up and running. There are currently 22 active trials of precision-bred GMOs in England – none of which have been assessed for environmental safety.”  GMWatch adds that nor have they been assessed for food safety.  
Citizens’ Charter on Genetic Technologies upholds choice and transparency
A new Citizens’ Charter for Transparency, Accountability and Choice in the Use of Genetic Technologies has been launched, setting out clear principles for how genetic engineering – including gene editing and so-called “precision breeding” – should be governed in the UK. The Charter responds to recent changes in UK law that have dismantled long-standing safeguards for GMOs. These changes allow developers to self-certify the safety of genetically engineered crops, foods and environmental releases, while removing requirements for independent oversight, labelling and traceability. 
68 pages of “listening”, zero pages of action – what Defra’s report on “precision bred” GMO seeds reveals
UK farm ministry Defra has published its “Summary of responses to the consultation on the Plant Varieties and Seeds Framework for precision bred plant varieties”. The document is detailed, data-heavy, and full of the language of collaboration – yet beneath the surface it reveals something deeply troubling about how public participation is being used in policymaking around gene-edited crops. At first glance, this looks like government listening. Defra tells us it has “consulted”, thanks respondents for their engagement, and assures them that their feedback will “inform and shape implementation”. But nowhere does it commit to acting on what people said. People want transparency, traceability and labelling – but the government shows no intention of honouring these demands.
UK Food Standards Agency wants to “raise awareness” of new GMOs with the help of the Science Media Centre
The UK government has deregulated so-called “precision bred” GMOs in England. In September the UK Food Standards Agency, which is supposed to protect the public by ensuring food is safe, held a meeting at which it was lamented (point 7.9) that “Consumer awareness of precision breeding was low. The FSA was considering how to raise awareness, potentially working with partners such as the Science Media Centre.” So we can look forward to biased and corporate-friendly messages about the wonders and supposed safety of “precision bred” GMOs from the very agency – the FSA – that is supposed to regulate them.

The corporate capture of MAHA: How the chemical lobby is stealing our health again

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By Lee Evslin

Read more …

Enshittification of our food and farms: Patents and new GMOs

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Bayer going after Pfizer for patent infringement is a forerunner for widespread abuse of intellectual property claims in food and farming if the planned GMO deregulation goes ahead. Report: Claire Robinson

Read more …

European Patent Office turns its back on EU decisions

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EPO practice of allowing patents on non-GM plants is becoming increasingly brazen, says No Patents on Seeds

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Scientist, farmer, and campaigner all call time on glyphosate

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Pre-harvest desiccation and non-farming uses of glyphosate should be banned, conference speakers agree. Report: Claire Robinson

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Now the European Parliament must save GM labelling – GMO-free industry association

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"Germany did not agree to the ill-conceived and economically and consumer-damaging abolition of mandatory GMO labelling in the EU" – VLOG

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Holiday revelation: Wild American chestnuts thriving on biologist’s land in Maine

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Film gives the lie to claims by some researchers that genetically engineered trees are the only path to restoration of the American chestnut

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EU governments sign off on far-reaching GMO deregulation

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"Most EU governments want to allow untested and unlabelled GM plants to be released into the environment and onto our plates" – Save Our Seeds

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EU Member States approve the deregulation of GMOs obtained by new GM techniques

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European Coordination Via Campesina (ECVC) denounces "strategic error for Europe’s food and seed sovereignty"

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Gene editing disrupts multiple gene functions through large-scale epigenetic changes in a way that persists through successive cell generations

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Study finds CRISPR/Cas gene editing causes “chromatin fatigue” – another surprise mechanism by which it can produce unwanted changes in gene function. Report: Claire Robinson and Prof Michael Antoniou

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Faking it without making it: The de-extinction disinfo campaign manager’s history of hype

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How Colossal Biosciences’ CEO Ben Lamm keeps the hype cycle going. By Jonathan Matthews

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Journal finally retracts Roundup cancer study reliant on Monsanto research and ghostwriting

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“Now that much of the research finding glyphosate poses no cancer risk has been undermined, it is especially outrageous that the Trump administration is seeking to bolster Bayer’s case,” said one campaigner. By Jessica Corbett

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Comments on provisional new GMOs legislation that abandons risk assessment, labelling and traceability

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ENGA (the European Non-GMO Industry Association) and Friends of the Earth Europe denounced the deal

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Bad deal reached on new GMO deregulation file in EU trilogue

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No risk assessment, traceability or labelling for 94% of new GMOs; rapporteur betrays intent of Parliament

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Silicon Valley’s race to produce genetically engineered humans

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By Katie Hasson, Biopolitical Times

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IUCN votes on gene editing in conservation: Biotech lobbyists ‘win’, nature loses

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Report by Beyond GM

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US tech billionaire pumps $60 million into British firm to develop GM crops and AI

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Larry Ellison is also a major funder of the Tony Blair Institute, which cheerleads for GM and AI. Report: Claire Robinson and Jonathan Matthews

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EU deregulation of genetic engineering: Parliament's mandate at risk of being disregarded

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Green MEP Martin Häusling warns that the Parliament's rapporteur is going rogue in her support for deregulation

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The limits and dangers of genetic engineering in agriculture

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Dr Million Belay interviews molecular geneticist Prof Michael Antoniou

Read more …

  1. Oxitec withdraws application to release its GM mosquitoes in Australia
  2. Review 592: Resistance to GMOs
  3. Patent on maize with native traits upheld
  4. Poll: 82% of Danes oppose GMO deregulation, at odds with government position
  5. Victory! Center for Food Safety secures win for the public’s right to know in GMO labelling lawsuit

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