Welcome to Review 560, which covers the problems with existing GMOs around the world. Currently, new GMOs are being hyped as the way to cut pesticide use, farm more sustainably, and generate a much wider range of novel crops. But that was exactly how old-style GMOs were originally promoted and, as this Review shows, what they’ve mainly delivered is herbicide tolerance (see AFRICA), which has only encouraged pesticide use, often with dire consequences for people and planet (see THE AMERICAS). The herbicide-tolerance trait has been engineered into around 90% of the GMO crops on the market, with most of the rest being supposedly pest-resistant Bt crops, which are also running into their own serious problems (see INDIA). Meanwhile, the only firm to have made significant headway in marketing a GMO animal as food, AquaBounty with its GMO salmon, seems to be in steep – possibly terminal – decline. Despite that, there is still a controversial push to introduce GMO salmon into Norwegian waters in trials that an official report labels “potentially high risk for wild Atlantic salmon populations” (see GMO ANIMALS).
AFRICA
Public–private partnerships and GMO crop development is failing smallholder farmers in Africa
A new paper drawing on a new comprehensive dataset of GMO crops in Africa shows that 25 years after GMO crops were first introduced to the continent, and despite all the talk of public-private partnerships (PPPs) helping public researchers create GMO crops tailored to Africa’s poor farmers, the actual research focus has been almost exclusively delivering just two traits: herbicide tolerance and pest resistance. Brian Dowd-Uribe and colleagues show that, despite the PPPs, private (not public) sector GMO research still predominates in Africa and is focused on crops and traits originally designed for larger-scale commercially oriented farmers, simply reproducing these varieties for African farmers.
INDIA
GMO Bt cotton yields in Karnataka stagnate due to pest pressure – study
New farm-level panel data from the Indian district of Ballari in Karnataka show that GMO Bt cotton yields have stagnated and become more sensitive to pest pressure in the second decade of adoption, resulting in losses in some years. More specifically, despite claims that Bt technology protects cotton crops from pink bollworms, farmers have suffered massive yield losses from the pest. This represents a significant threat to the livelihoods and lives of millions of subsistence Indian cotton farmers. The study’s findings show that initial economic benefits can diminish in the long run and raise an important question on the sustainability of Bt cotton. Bt cotton is the only GMO crop technology widely adopted by smallholder farmers.
GMO Bt cotton is failing in India: Cautions for Africa. But planting the right sort of non-GMO cotton could double yields, say scientists
GMO Bt cotton is failing in India and the lessons gained from its failure are of the utmost importance to Africa where, like in India, cotton is mainly grown in poor rainfed smallholder family farms, say internationally acknowledged experts in a new scientific paper. Andrew Gutierrez and colleagues say the underlying cause for this failure is the high cost of hybrid seed, which forces farmers to plant cotton in low density over a long growing season. This limits yield potential and means that the cotton is afflicted by late-season pests, such as the pink bollworm. This in turn means farmers have to buy pesticides, despite having already paid a premium for the supposedly pest-resistant Bt seeds. And substandard yields mean that not enough money is recouped from sale of the harvest. Bt cotton has thus trapped Indian farmers on pesticide and biotech treadmills as they try to solve agronomic and insecticide-induced pest problems using Bt cotton. This has increased indebtedness and foreclosures, leading to systematic dispossession of resource-poor households and thousands of farmer suicides. The authors recommend that farmers shift to high-density short-season pure-line non-hybrid, non-Bt, rainfed cotton varieties, including the native (Desi) varieties. The wide-scale planting of non-hybrid (and non-GM) rainfed cotton, due to its pest avoidance properties, “would render the Bt technology largely irrelevant as demonstrated in irrigated desert cotton in California”, where these non-GM varieties, combined with early harvesting and ploughing, disrupted overwintering of the pink bollworm, “saving the cotton industry from the ravages of this invasive pest”. The authors believe that adopting such varieties instead of GMO Bt cotton “can potentially produce double the yields of the current low-density hybrid system”.
Bt cotton in India: No buyers for salvaged produce after pink bollworm wreaks havoc
GMO Bt cotton crops in the northern cotton zone of Haryana, Rajasthan and Punjab have been destroyed by the pink bollworm pest that Bt cotton was created to resist. With over 90% of the yield damaged in some areas, farmers are struggling to salvage their remaining produce. Meanwhile, the little cotton that is reaching the market is too poor quality to purchase, according to traders. Government reports say the pink bollworm has attacked the entire cotton belt in the north. About 65% of cotton production in Haryana and Punjab has been severely damaged, while Rajasthan has faced losses of up to 90%.
Cotton curse: Bt cotton losses by pink bollworm pushing farmers to brink of suicide
The pink bollworm attack on GMO Bt cotton in the north Indian states is claiming more than just the crops – the losses are pushing farmers to the brink of suicide and beyond. On 25 September 2023, 40-year-old Shamsher Singh from Sri Ganganagar district in Rajasthan was driven to take his own life. His brother Balwinder Singh said Shamsher’s entire plantation was infested with pink bollworm. “He realised that the entire crop had been lost,” the brother explained, “and the losses would only add to his debt that had been piling up for the past three years”.
Rare parliamentarian who “thoroughly studied” the socio-economic impact of GMO crops dies
Basudeb Acharia, former Member of India’s Parliament, who has passed away at the age of 81, headed a Parliamentary committee that recommended a ban on field trials of all GMO crops and pointed out important regulatory shortcomings. The committee he headed also blamed “collusion of the worst kind” for the promotion in India of GMO Bt brinjal (eggplant/aubergine).
THE AMERICAS
Argentina: Order upheld to ban all pesticide spraying within one kilometre of city in the heart of GMO soybean country
The Supreme Court of the Argentinian province of Santa Fe has upheld a judgement ordering the municipality of Sastre – in the heart of GMO soybean country – to ban all pesticide spraying within a one kilometre radius of urban areas. The pesticide ban was originally ordered in response to a complaint filed with the support of the local community by the family of Zoé Giraudo, a two-year-old girl who developed lymphoblastic lymphoma – an aggressive form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma – after being regularly exposed to pesticides sprayed near to where she lived. This historic decision by the highest court in Santa Fe sets a precedent that opens the door for other populations to seek similar protections.
Argentina: Small farmers demand urgent measures to stop pesticide spraying that decimates their livestock and harms their health
In the fields of Santiago, water sources are being contaminated by pesticides, animals are dying, and the air is difficult to breathe, according to a report in the Argentine press. One result is that farm families want a say in the reforming of Argentina’s agrochemical law introduced in 1996, when the first GMO soybean tolerant of glyphosate was approved. Now there are more than 60 GMO crop crop varieties approved, some of which can also be sprayed with even more toxic pesticides, such as 2,4 D, dicamba, and glufosinate.
Brazil: Glyphosate sprayed on GMO crops even hitting protected areas of the Cerrado
Previous studies have shown glyphosate contamination of lichens in conservation areas in Brazil’s Cerrado – the world’s most biodiverse savanna, home to 5% of the planet’s animals and plants. But a new study shows the lichens in the protected areas are actually dying. Because lichens are bioindicators of air quality, the study also shows the difficulty of breathing clean air in the Cerrado. According to medical doctor and public health expert Wanderlei Pignati, the arrival of GMO seeds was decisive for the surge in the use of glyphosate and other pesticides in the Cerrado, which now accounts for 73.5% of the entire volume of pesticides sold throughout Brazil.
USA: Weedkillers are hitting Missouri and Illinois forests. And they’re killing trees, experts warn
Complaints and lawsuits about suspected damage by dicamba, a herbicide that like glyphosate has seen a voluminous increase in use because of GMO crops, have stretched from soybean fields to forage for honeybees, from peach orchards to grape vineyards, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of legal settlements. But the wider ecosystem is also sustaining serious damage, as can be seen in the slow death of trees across Missouri and Illinois. Landowners say 200-year-old oaks have become sick. State conservation workers are documenting trees with curling leaves and forests with thinning canopies. Scientists have studied hundreds of trees and found widespread evidence of chemicals in their leaves. The signs are spreading across the region, from farms to conservation areas to some of Illinois’ largest forests. Many affected trees have already died and experts expect tree deaths will increase further if nothing changes. The director of ecological health for Prairie Rivers Network, a nonprofit that has tested trees across the state for years, says, “This is one of our biggest threats to forest health that we have in Illinois and even in the Midwest”. “It’s pretty scary,” says Robbie Doerhoff, a forest entomologist for the Missouri Department of Conservation who leads the agency’s forest health program. Doerhoff sees a “slow and cumulative” ecosystem-wide impact: “We’re gonna be in a world of hurt in the next few years here, I think.”
If the trees are dying, how about the people?
The Iowa State University water quality expert Dr Chris Jones has pointed out that given that the Prairie Rivers Network (see item above) in its testing of trees for pesticide residues in Illinois found “EVERY tree including those in cities contains pesticides”, then, “ Yes Iowans, you are inhaling pesticides”. His comment came in the context of a report showing nearly 370 elementary schools in Iowa were within a quarter of a mile of farm fields that are likely to be sprayed, with some of the schools within 200 feet. Iowa grows vast quantities of GMO soybeans and maize engineered to be tolerant to herbicides like glyphosate, dicamba, 2,4-D and glufosinate, all of which can drift – sometimes for miles.
US farmers could make more money growing non-GMO corn, says farm group
Farmer group Farm Action US has weighed in on the GMO corn trade dispute between the US and Mexico. They point out that Mexico’s preference for higher-value non-GMO corn represents a tremendous market opportunity for American farmers and one that the US government should be supporting US farmers to meet. The US has instead responded to Mexico’s plan to phase out GMO corn by initiating a dispute under the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, claiming Mexico’s ban violates the trade agreement and will harm farmers. Accordingly, an independent panel has been established to accept public comments, investigate, and rule on Mexico’s ban. “US farmers who produce non-GM corn have reported promising financial returns, including higher premiums and improved net profits,” Farm Action says in its application to be heard in the dispute. Farm Action’s application says US government opposition of the ban isn’t about defending corn growers, but “primarily protects the major seed and agrochemical corporations who would have the most to lose if a substantial number of American corn farmers were to shift to non-GMO production.”
Colombia: Constitutional Court rules that GMO crops threaten the integrity of indigenous seeds
The Alliance for Agrobiodiversity – a coalition of Colombian farmers, Indigenous peoples, academics and others – has welcomed the Constitutional Court’s finding that GMO crops threaten the integrity of indigenous seeds and the rights of communities working with them. Since the first release of GMO maize in Colombia in 2007, the use of buffer zones has failed to keep Indigenous reserves free of contamination. As a result, genes conferring Bt tolerance and glyphosate resistance are now found in indigenous varieties, as well as in seeds labelled “non GMO”. The Court’s ruling, and the measures it prescribes, are essential to protect the rights of Indigenous communities, the Alliance says. But the same threat applies to seeds of peasants and Afro-descendants, as well. So the Alliance is urging the government to take the logical step of extending the Court’s ruling to all seeds by recognising agrobiodiversity as a common good of peoples and banning GMO crops in Colombia.
GMO ANIMALS
New GMO salmon trials pose “high risk” for wild salmon – Norwegian scientific committee
Proposed research trials on “sterile” salmon made with new GM techniques are criticised in a report by the Norwegian Scientific Committee for Food and Environment (VKM). VKM considers releasing GMO salmon into sea cages “potentially high risk for wild Atlantic salmon populations”. VKM says if escaped fertile GMO salmon spread sterility gene variants to future generations of wild salmon populations, this would have “a massive impact on wild Atlantic salmon”, reducing the productivity of wild populations and the viability of already vulnerable populations.
GMO salmon firm’s share price in free fall, raising new fears of Nasdaq delisting
GMO salmon producer AquaBounty’s shares have suffered a spectacular fall in the first 11 days since the company undertook a stock split aimed at preventing its expulsion from the Nasdaq exchange. By late October, AquaBounty’s stock price was down 45% to $2.36 (€2.23) from its split-adjusted peak of $4.29 (€4.05) during trading on 16 October, following the stock split. The company initiated the reverse stock split earlier in October to raise its share price, which was then languishing around $0.23 (€0.22), above the $1.00 threshold. Falling below this threshold could lead to delisting, impacting the company’s ability to raise capital. In June, rising costs prompted AquaBounty to pause its salmon farm construction in Pioneer, Ohio.
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