GMWatch News Review archive

Review 582: GMOs in General – Resistance and Failures

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Welcome to our latest Review, which covers inspiring stories about the ongoing global RESISTANCE TO GMOs, as well as GMO FAILURES, GMO FUNDING CUTS, and issues of BIOTECH GOVERNANCE. A second Review will follow soon, covering other GMO-related topics. Our recent Reviews dealing specifically with new GMOs and the battle over deregulation are archived – like almost all our Reviews for the last quarter century – here.

RESISTANCE TO GMOs
Kenya – court orders government to cease permitting GMO imports (video)
In Kenya the Court of Appeal has issued orders stopping the government from permitting GMO imports or doing anything to implement its lifting of Kenya’s GMO ban. The Kenyan Peasants League had appealed the decision to lift the ban.
Mexico bans planting GMO corn seeds to protect native varieties
A Constitutional reform to ban the planting of GMO corn has quickly been passed by both houses of the Mexican parliament with overwhelming majorities, as well as by the majority of Mexican states, and has been signed into law by the Mexican President, Claudia Sheinbaum. More on the ban here.  
Joy in Mexico at ban on GMO corn planting 
Watch an inspiring mini video (in Spanish, but non-Spanish speakers will get the gist) of the celebrations of the vote that passed the Constitutional amendment.
Thousands condemn US and Canada attempt to force Mexicans to eat GMO tortillas
The Constitutional reform permanently banning the planting of GMO corn followed the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) trade dispute panel’s ruling that Mexico’s restrictions on importing GMO corn violate the agreement. In response to the ruling, an internationally-supported statement signed by 10,268 individuals and 698 organisations (GMWatch among them) expressed solidarity with Mexico in its defence of food sovereignty, public health, environmental integrity and Indigenous rights.
Peru’s agricultural unions reject congressional bill that seeks to annul moratorium on GMOs
Peru’s agricultural unions have rejected a Congressional bill seeking to lift the ban (currently in place until 2035) on GMOs. And Peru’s agriculture minister has admitted there is not enough support to overthrow the country’s GMO ban: “We will not get the votes in  Congress”. Peasant and Indigenous groups are now calling instead for the approval of a law that guarantees their right to conserve, exchange, and freely use their seeds for the benefit of the country’s biodiversity and agricultural production.
Kernels of Resistance: Maize, Food Sovereignty, and Collective Power – book and audio interview
Listen to a great audio interview with professor and chair of Native American Studies at UC Davis Liza Grandia, author of the book, Kernels of Resistance: Maize, Food Sovereignty, and Collective Power (available for free download, as well as for purchase). In the interview, Prof Grandia talks about her new book and the revolts in Mexico and Guatemala against GMO corn. Grandia’s book was inspired by the largest uprising in Guatemala’s history, when 100,000 people put their lives on the line blocking the Pan-American Highway till their Congress repealed a law legalising GMO crops and criminalising traditional seed saving with prison sentences.
India: Supreme Court hears pleas against GMO mustard cultivation
On 15 April 2025, the Supreme Court of India heard pleas filed by environmentalists against the commercial cultivation of GMO mustard in the country. This follows its verdict on 23 July 2024, questioning the validity of the central government’s decision in favour of the environmental release of GMO mustard. Kavitha Kuruganti, a representative of the Coalition for a GM-Free India, said GMO mustard “has all the risks that you can imagine. GM mustard is unsafe, unwanted, and unneeded.” The risks are also detailed in this article and in this short video. 

GMO FAILURES

Argentina and Paraguay: Civil society organisations call for suspension of GMO wheat

Civil society organisations in Argentina and Paraguay are calling for the suspension of Bioceres’s GMO wheat HB4 on the grounds of its failure. The wheat is marketed as drought-resistant and as tolerant to the herbicide glufosinate ammonium, which is banned in the EU due to concerns about its toxicity. However, the groups state, “According to official data, HB4 wheat yields much less than conventional (non-GMO) wheats, even in drought years. In the annual average of data for 2021, HB4 wheat yielded 17% less than conventional wheat.” The poor yields were reported in the media in 2022 and appear to come from company and government data. The groups add, “In the following years, neither the State nor the company published production data in the different regions.” They suggest its poor performance may explain “the fall in sales and revenues of Bioceres (that) has caused the company to exit the sale of seeds.” Bioceres – “the Argentine Monsanto” – is reporting a 24% drop in revenue.
Cooke buys AquaBounty Canada for hatchery facilities
Canadian fish farming heavyweight Cooke Aquaculture has agreed to buy the Canadian subsidiary of former land-based GMO salmon producer AquaBounty. Cooke stressed that it does not farm or sell any genetically engineered seafood products and has no plans to do so with the acquisition of AquaBounty. It has bought the company purely for its hatcheries.
India: Bt cotton’s failure revives interest in indigenous cotton
GMO Bt cotton’s poor yields, high incidence of pink bollworm infestations, increased pesticide use, and low quality cotton, has encouraged not just growing criticism but the increasing promotion of India’s indigenous (“desi”) cotton varieties. Recent supporters range from the Vice Chancellor of Punjab Agricultural University, Satbir Singh, to India’s Opposition Leader, Rahul Gandhi, to Vogue Business. They note that indigenous cotton varieties, with their natural resistance to pests and adaptability to local climates, offer an excellent alternative to water- and chemical-intensive GMO Bt cotton. 
The US is planting too much GMO corn – and farmers are losing billions of dollars
A new study adds to evidence that farmers in the US corn belt have over-planted GMO Bt corn, leading to estimated losses of more than $1 billion as the pests the corn was designed to repel have grown resistant over time. The authors of the paper, published in the journal Science, said their findings supported a move toward a “more diversified” seed supply. Between 2014 and 2016, farmers in Indiana, Ohio and Michigan planted about 50% of their fields with Bt corn, but data the study authors reviewed suggested the ideal level was 18% or less. If farmers in these states had planted this lower, optimal level of Bt corn, they would have made $99 million more per year during this period, according to the paper. “This study is the first to show that short-term economic gains for individual farmers are associated with planting less Bt corn targeting rootworms,” said Bruce Tabashnik, a University of Arizona professor who wasn’t involved in the study.
GMO maize farming triggers major concerns in Mulugu, India
Cultivation of GMO maize in Mulugu, India has raised concerns. Even though trials were allegedly camouflaged in remote areas as seed production, the issue came to light when a seed organiser abandoned the crop after it failed to meet the expected yields in Mulugu district. Farmers were told that the seeds would produce up to 4 tonnes per acre, but the yields were far lower.
Podcast: Dr Angelika Hilbeck on the politics and promises of genetic engineering
Dr Angelika Hilbeck takes us on a fascinating journey through the early stages of genetic engineering in agriculture, highlighting the flaws in the essence of the approach – its reductionist approach to ecological relationships – which has not changed with CRISPR/Cas and new genetic engineering techniques. She explains how the promises of genetic engineering have been consistently exaggerated, and despite vast investments in the development of GMO crops for agriculture, they have fallen short of expectations. She asks whether it is not only the considerable ecological risks of the technologies that make them a questionable bet for the future of agriculture, but the poor ratio of investment to results of the whole biotech endeavour.
Why is it so hard to rewrite a genome?
While synthetic biology experiments have provided valuable learning experiences, Akos Nyerges, a synthetic-genomics researcher in George Church’s lab at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, says this research has “laid bare how much we still don’t understand about the fundamental language of the genome. Every genome-rewriting program so far has grappled with substantial and unexpected challenges, and the era of made-to-order genomes remains out of reach. When it comes to heavily modified genomes, we underestimated how complex biology is.” 
Brazil soy shipments to China from five firms halted due to contamination
China, the world’s biggest soybean buyer, has stopped receiving Brazilian soybean shipments from five firms after cargoes did not meet plant health requirements, according to a statement from the Brazilian government. The Brazilian agriculture ministry said China’s General Administration of Customs (GACC) detected the presence of pesticides and pests on a routine inspection of cargos. Most Brazil-grown soybeans are GMO herbicide-tolerant.
Experts warn that the widespread use of chemical inputs in agriculture harms the Brazilian economy
For Diana Chaib, an economist and researcher on Sino-Brazilian relations at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, China’s decision to suspend imports from some Brazilian soy companies (see above) can be understood as “a warning to Brazilian agribusiness, especially about the need to improve quality controls and review practices related to pesticide use”.
GMO tomato project funded by Gates Foundation and US taxpayers hits roadblock
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and DARPA, a division of the US Department of Defense, are funding research to genetically engineer tomatoes to be able to disrupt the reproductive cycle of the whitefly, a common insect that damages tomato plants. The researchers aim to develop a GMO technology that could modify plants to produce proteins that target and destroy whitefly eggs. However, they encountered major technical problems in their experiments. Critics of the technology, including Prof Michael Antoniou and GMWatch’s Claire Robinson, explain why they aren’t surprised.

GMO FUNDING CUTS
Will USAID cuts end GMO projects in Africa, Bangladesh? 
According to a list from Punchbowl News of USAID terminated awards, the following GM crop projects in Africa are no longer receiving USAID funds:
- Blight-resistant potato (Ethiopia, Nigeria)
- Striga-resistant sorghum (Kenya, Ethiopia)
- VIRCA Plus - disease resistant cassava (Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria)
- TELA Maize - drought resistant maize (Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria)
- PBR cowpea - pest-resistant cowpea (Nigeria, Ghana, Burkina Faso). 
USAID also cancelled the insect-resistant eggplant project in Bangladesh. Researcher Brian Dowd-Uribe commented on X: “USAID has traditionally been one of the largest funders of GM crop projects in Africa, contributing over $100 million USD in funding from 2001-2022. It is the largest or sole funder for many of the above projects (e.g. PBR cowpea). It remains to be confirmed whether such funding has been cancelled, and what this may mean for these projects moving forward. It also remains unclear whether the largest funder of ag biotech projects in Africa, the Gates Foundation, will continue funding these formerly jointly-funded projects, and/or increase levels to maintain project functionality.”

BIOTECH GOVERNANCE
Agreement on ensuring public scrutiny of decisions on release of GMOs comes into force in April
A two decades-old international agreement on ensuring public scrutiny of decisions on the release of GMOs takes effect in April after achieving enough ratifications, the UN said. Amid fears over the risks to human health and the environment posed by GMOs, a group of countries agreed in 2005 to spell out in the Aarhus Convention the right to participate in decisions around the release and commercialisation of the organisms. The amendment, which requires “public participation in decisions on the deliberate release into the environment and placing on the market of genetically modified organisms”, took effect on April 20. This means that the EU, Britain and the other parties that have ratified the amendment, as well as all UN member states that might join the amendment going forward, “must establish in their regulatory framework effective means to ensure transparency and public participation in related decisions”, it said.

Civil society groups warn new Asilomar conference: Scientists must not be allowed to self-regulate

In an open statement, civil society groups (including GMWatch), scientists, and academics are challenging the democratic legitimacy of any conclusions or policy proposals that may yet arise from the 2025 Spirit of Asilomar and the Future of Biotechnology conference, which ran from 23-26 February at Asilomar, California. The conference marked the 50th anniversary of the famous 1975 Asilomar conference on biotechnology, which, in the words of Tina Stevens and Stuart A. Newman of the Alliance for Humane Biotechnology (a signatory group of the open statement), “enshrined the precedent that scientists would oversee their own enterprises. In essence, they would regulate themselves.” 

The open statement, signed by over 60 organisations and an additional number of eminent individuals, says, “We are at a point in human history when technological developments, including genetic engineering, bioweapons, virological research, synthetic biology and other technologies, carry existential threats to health, the environment, the economy and human society. Questions about how to regulate, restrict, or prohibit these technologies to reduce risk require broad-based, open, transparent and honest debate involving all sectors of society.” 
The dire consequences of secretive biotech regulation
Independent Science News has published an article on the new Asilomar conference and the legacy of the first such conference, which “led to uncontrolled and sometimes disastrous experiments, and to global genetic contamination by commercial products”. The article says, “Today, in 2025, the dangers we face from synthetic biology, mirror life, RNA technology, and gene editing are much greater.” It concludes, “Regulation of biotechnology should ultimately be by governments acting in the best interests of society as a whole and using the precautionary principle; but this requires the regulator to have... the necessary political authority,... financial independence and... clearly defined responsibilities. Regulators who become cheerleaders for a technology, as commonly happens, have lost their way.”
Asilomar déjà vu?
Tina Stevens and Stuart A. Newman, authors of Biotech Juggernaut: Hope, Hype, and Hidden Agendas of Entrepreneurial Bioscience, explain the background of the first Asilomar conference and question the scientific, social, and ethical functions of the 2025 Spirit of Asilomar conference.
Argentina approved 25 GMOs in 2024
In 2024 Argentina’s GMO-loving government, under President Milei, approved 25 new GMOs – seeds and microorganisms – the highest number ever. This included GMO soy and corn varieties linked to glyphosate, 2,4-D and glufosinate (banned in the EU), and containing Bt toxins. The developer companies were Corteva, Monsanto and BASF. The Ministry of Agriculture in Argentina released so many GMOs last year that they constitute almost 25% of the total approved in the country in over a quarter of a century.