Review 587 – GMOs in General

In this Review we’re excited to announce a major new resource on the 30 years of broken GMO promises. One of GMWatch’s key messages has always been the extraordinary gap between GMO promises and delivery. So we were delighted to be asked by Save Our Seeds to collaborate on creating a new website – GMO Promises – that systematically sets out how the hyped silver bullet solutions used to promote this technology turn out again and again to be wildly misleading or just plain duds (see GMO FAILURES for details of the new site, as well as all the latest trainwrecks emanating from the agbiotech industry).

This Review also has sections on the ongoing RESISTANCE TO GMOs around the world; the fight for FOOD AND SEED SOVEREIGNTY; GMO EXPANSIONS (not much to worry about – just a niche tomato and more sliced apples in plastic); and the latest attempt to pass off a NON-GMO SUCCESS as an achievement of genetic engineering.

GMO FAILURES

Bitter harvest – 30 years of broken GMO promises

Whatever happened to GM Golden Rice? And wasn’t GM salmon supposed to revolutionise aquaculture? Three decades after the first GMO crops were planted, Save Our Seeds, in collaboration with GMWatch and with contributions from Beyond GM, explores the fate of eight GMO promises once presented as game-changers. The conclusion: bold claims, dismal delivery. In 1995, the US Department of Agriculture approved the first Bt maize and glyphosate-tolerant soybean, opening the way for large-scale cultivation of GM crops. The promises came thick and fast: GMOs would feed the world, reduce chemical use, and save children from malnutrition. Thirty years on, a small number of GM crops occupy just 13% of global arable land, largely concentrated in a handful of countries. And most of the promises remain unmet. Save Our Seeds’ new website, GMO Promises, is a resource for journalists, policymakers, campaigners, scientists, investors, and anyone else looking to understand the real legacy of GMO technologies and what lessons should be learned as the next wave of biotech rolls in. The website presents eight prominent claims and shows what really happened in each case.

USDA poised to approve release of genetically engineered trees based on botched research

Bizarrely, the USDA wants to deregulate (approve for release into the wild) the GM American chestnut tree in spite of the fact that it is known to be defective and prone to blight – and could therefore pose a risk to remaining naturally blight-resistant wild chestnuts. Initially, the developers at SUNY ESF submitted data to the USDA on the wrong GM tree (D54) – the field trials and other research were also done on D54 when they were mistakenly claimed to be on D58. The developers subsequently amended their petition for deregulation to name D54 instead of D58. The USDA doesn’t care that the safety and performance data were gathered on the wrong tree, or that the GM tree has been shown to be defective and could pose a risk to wild chestnuts. The USDA has opened up a public comment period until 21 July 2025. See below for how to take part.

TAKE ACTION: Help stop defective genetically engineered American chestnut tree!
Please help stop the world’s first ever mass release of a fertile GMO plant into the wild – which is being promoted as a solution to climate change. Take action! The deadline for submitting your comment to the USDA to stop the GE D54 Chestnut is 21 July.
1. SUBMIT YOUR COMMENT at the government website.
2. SIGN THE SIGN-ON LETTER developed by the Campaign to STOP GE Trees to collect signatures against the D54 deregulation. The letter has arguments you can use in your own comments, as well as background information.
3. SHARE THE SIGN ON LETTER:
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New Yorkers restore the American chestnut with non-GM trees while GM fails
New Yorkers are planting non-GM blight-resistant American chestnut tree seeds in back yards and local parks. The seeds come from trees that so far have proven remarkably resilient – unlike the poorly performing GM trees that SUNY ESF are seeking to deregulate (see items above). The GM alternative “isn’t a restoration project, it’s a genetically flawed science experiment poised for commercialisation at the expense of our forests,” Anne Petermann of the Global Justice Ecology Project told the Guardian. “The forests deserve real science, not flawed experiments.” (For more on the failure of the GM American chestnut project, see GMO Promises.)

GM no-till agriculture is not “regenerative” or climate-friendly – new report

GMO proponents claim that GM herbicide-tolerant corn and soy have enabled uptake of no-till or minimum-till farming, saving soil from erosion, increasing carbon sequestration in soil, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and thus contributing positively to “regenerative” farming. But a new report from Friends of the Earth (FoE), Rethinking No-Till, refutes the widely held assumption that no-till automatically equals “regenerative”. Indeed, the report shows that not only does GMO-based no-till fail to solve the climate crisis, but it is part of the problem. The report also finds that most no-till systems are so heavily dependent on toxic herbicides to manage weeds that a staggering one-third of the US’s total annual pesticide use can be attributed to no- and minimum-till GM corn and soy production alone. The FoE report comes on the heels of a peer-reviewed study showing that GM crops have led to increased tillage and greenhouse gas emissions in US corn and soy.

GM crops fuel rise in pesticide use despite early promises: study

In April 2025, a new study rebutted claims that GM crops cut chemical use. Published in the Journal of Agrarian Change, the research found that GM crops have deepened agriculture’s dependency on pesticides rather than reducing it. Drawing on data from four GM crops – Bt cotton, herbicide-tolerant (HT) soybean, HT and/or Bt maize, and HT rapeseed – the researchers traced the surge in chemical use over three decades. They found as GM seeds were adopted, pesticide use soared. What began as a cost-saving solution turned into a cycle of higher expenses and increased pesticide use.

GM fish firm owes contractor nearly $1.6 million, lawsuit claims
AquaBounty Farms Ohio LLC stands accused of owing nearly $1.6 million to a contractor it hired to help construct a land-based aquaculture plant for raising genetically modified salmon in Pioneer, Ohio. The project was never finished. It came to a halt in June 2023. The GM fish firm’s stock has plummeted in recent months. In December, it ceased all remaining fish-rearing operations. From the first hint that AquaBounty’s GM salmon would be approved, surveys of US consumers showed rejection of the product. For more on the comprehensive failure of this GM salmon project, see the new resource, GMO Promises.

India: Bt cotton seed price hike – experts call for review as yields decline and pest attacks rise
The Indian government’s decision to raise Bt cotton seed prices ahead of the monsoon season drew sharp criticism from experts and farmers, who pointed to declining yields and rising pink bollworm infestations in recent years. Critics alleged that the government approved the hike without assessing the seeds’ performance or consulting those most affected. Farmers have reported mounting losses and rising debts due to recurring pest attacks over the last several years. Cotton yields have steadily declined.

Indigenous cotton – India’s textile future (video)
Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi says today the majority of India’s cotton is GMO Bt cotton– controlled by foreign corporations like Monsanto. He says the indigenous varieties are disappearing, water use is unsustainable, and farmers remain underpaid. Hence India needs to invest in indigenous cotton.

India’s native cotton was stamped out. Can it be revived?
Indigenous cotton varieties once thrived in India, supporting a vast artisanal economy. Farmers, ginners, spinners and artisans existed in an interdependent chain. But centuries of colonial extraction and ecological displacement all but stamped out this economy, leaving India with a cotton industry that is now dominated by industrial-scale farming, monocultures and genetically modified crops. These developments came at a cost: declining soil health, increased pesticide reliance and a system that prioritises yield over resilience. Now, in grassroots initiatives, indigenous varieties of cotton, grown under organic systems, are being revived.

West Australia grain farmers pull back GM canola plantings for the first time as non-GM price premiums rise
West Australia grain farmers are slowing down their plantings of GM canola for the first time, enticed by a price premium of up to $100 per tonne for non-GM canola. More than 1.73 million hectares of canola has been planted across West Australia fields this year, with GM plantings stalling and non-GM plantings increasing as farmers weigh up agronomics and financial pay-off.

UK GMO research institute’s glory days are in the past, says agribiz consultant
In an article on the pro-GMO-deregulation lobbying website Science for Sustainable Agriculture (see our profile), agribusiness consultant James Wallace pushes for UK public science research and development to be even more industry-influenced and “market” orientated than it already is. The article contains criticisms of the John Innes Centre (JIC) – a research institute heavily oriented towards corporate (especially GMO) interests – including the claim that its glory days are all in the past. Wallace writes, “Renowned internationally for its high-quality science and league-topping performance in academic publications, JIC’s demonstrable impact at farm level is rather less impressive... The JIC website’s statement that ‘the John Innes Centre returns £15.22 to the UK economy for every £1 invested’ is... open to challenge, since it is not based on past performance but on theoretical and highly optimistic forward projections over the next 10, 15 and 25 years.” And, we would add, as the GMO Promises project shows, when it comes to GM crops, such projections have often proven to be complete fairytales. For more on the JIC, see this resource.

GMO EXPANSION

US: They’re coming for your kids! – GM Arctic apple
A new 2-ounce GMO Arctic apple packaging has been rolled out in schools and foodservice channels nationwide, featuring “bold, playful colours” in bright “kid-friendly packaging” plus “Artie”, their new mascot. The GMO Arctic apple slogan is “Keep an eye out for Artie!” We think you should. Tell your kids to avoid Artie and his genetically engineered apples, which are pre-sliced and sold in plastic packaging. Fresh non-GMO apples are widely available and don’t need to come wrapped in plastic!

GM purple tomatoes coming to Northern California restaurants
Norfolk Healthy Produce has commercial growers lined up in Northern California for its GM purple tomatoes for the 2025 growing season, primarily aimed at the restaurant trade. The company is a 2021 startup that is bringing the tomato to market. It got its tomatoes into some supermarkets on the US East Coast last year. Other than selling seed packets and seedlings to home gardeners and some limited fresh fruit at a farmers’ market, the commercial crop this year will be the company’s first foray into large-scale sales on the West Coast.

Regulators assessing bid to grow and sell GM purple tomato in Australia
Norfolk Healthy Produce’s GM purple tomato could be sold in Australian supermarkets next year if regulators approve a bid to grow it in Australia.

GM purple tomato “will help feed the world” – Forbes
In 2023 Forbes published an article claiming that the GM purple tomato (see above) “will help feed the world” – a pro-GMO narrative so old, hackneyed, and discredited that we didn’t expect to see it again, especially so when applied to a tomato targeted at the same higher-end market as “premium cherry” and heirloom tomatoes. Let’s hope, for the sake of sanity, that Forbes was being ironic. For more about the outlandish fantasies conjured up in the media about this purple tomato, and the safety concerns that they ignore, see this, this, and this.

RESISTANCE TO GMOs

India: Government illegally evicted environmental campaigner Aruna Rodrigues, court says
GMWatch has received the good news that the environmental campaigner Aruna Rodrigues, who was forcibly evicted from her home by weapons-touting Indian army personnel just before Christmas 2022, has won her case against the Indian government in court. In the strongly worded ruling, the judge said: “The manner in which the defendants [the government] have taken possession of the disputed property is wholly illegal and defies all canons of law.” The court ordered the government to return the keys to her home by 30 June – and we hear she is already back in her home. Many will know Aruna as the initiator of the court case that stayed the rollout of GM mustard in India. Her supporters said that as the lead petitioner in the Indian Supreme Court case against GMOs, Aruna had been a target of attack by the State for some time and they suspected the eviction was a crude attempt to disempower her. More information here. (No link in header)

Guatemala: Indigenous peoples denounce GMO threats, defend food sovereignty
In April in Guatemala, organisations of Indigenous peoples, peasants, scientists and activists gathered for the 2025 Food Sovereignty Seminar , where a powerful declaration was issued in defence of native seeds, ancestral knowledge, and food sovereignty. Under the slogan “We care for and defend the seeds for the continuity of life”, participants denounced the growing threat posed by genetic modification technologies, particularly the recent allocation of public funds to an NGO linked to the company Semilla Nueva for the development of gene-edited maize using CRISPR-Cas technology.

Why did Mexico amend constitution to prohibit GM corn seeds?
Commenting on Mexico’s amendment to its constitution prohibiting the use of GM corn seeds, pesticide and agbiotech expert Charles Benbrook commented, “Few people in the US, including most US corn farmers, understand why Mexico is so worried about what GMO corn could do to their public health. But corn is king in Mexico. It accounts for 60 percent of daily caloric intake... When evaluated and approved years ago, the combined expression level of Bt toxins [the pest-killing toxins in GM corn] in corn kernels at harvest were almost always less than 10 ppm. Today, most GM corn varieties express 50 ppm to 100 ppm, and some are over 100 ppm.” And the EPA is now “updating its evaluation of the carcinogenic potential of glyphosate”.

India: Pushback as US pressures Modi to allow imports of GM crops
An alliance of farmers’ associations and agricultural scientists promoting sustainable agriculture are among those appealing to India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi not to allow the import of GM crops in its final negotiations for a trade agreement with the United States. They warned that it “would have serious and irreparable implications for India’s agriculture, biosafety, public health, rural livelihoods, and seed and food sovereignty”. The Global Trade Research Initiative also warned about the implications for food security, noting that crops like GM soy benefit from deep subsidies in the US, which gives them an unfair advantage over Indian producers. They also noted the strong opposition to GM foods in India and that India’s loose supply chains mean GM traits could easily leak into domestic systems, contaminating local crops and hurting exports to GM-sensitive markets.

Bangladesh’s GMO buffet: Eat first, ask questions never
In a searing indictment of Bangladesh’s non-functional food regulatory system, a barrister writes: “In most parts of the world, the phrase ‘you are what you eat’ is taken as a serious motivation for health. In Bangladesh, we take it as a threat... Bangladesh was the first country in South Asia to commercially release a genetically modified food crop: Bt brinjal, rolled out in 2013 with all the subtlety of a government-sponsored watch party... No warning labels. No meaningful consumer consent. Just ‘Here, take this magic seed. Don’t ask questions. Smile for the Ministry of Agriculture.’ Since then, we’ve been flirting with Golden Rice, GM potatoes, and whatever Frankenstein crop is next on the donor-funded wish list. And still – still – there’s no mandatory GMO labelling.”

Brazil: Mega-operation to combat trade in genetically modified fish
A mega-operation launched in seven states and the Federal District of Brazil to combat the illegal keeping and trade of genetically modified ornamental fish has so far resulted in 36 infraction notices, totalling 2.38 million Brazilian reals (about $440,000 US) in fines, and the seizure of 58,482 modified specimens of species used in aquarium keeping.

FOOD AND SEED SOVEREIGNTY

New film showcases what’s wrong with food and farming – and how to put it right

An inspiring and insightful new film, In Symbiosis, looks at what’s gone wrong with food and farming (including the GMO and pesticides treadmill) and points to ways we can put them back on track towards greater sustainability and resilience. Directed by Helena Berndl and Francesco Maria Gallo, In Symbiosis features interviews with experts from across the world, including regenerative farmers, molecular geneticist Prof Michael Antoniou, GMWatch co-director Claire Robinson, and food sovereignty champion Dr Vandana Shiva.

Coalition of conventional and organic farmers call for an end to patents on seeds
In Germany, dairy farmers, plant breeders, the leading organic farming association, the largest conventional farmers association, Germany’s protestant churches and the Catholic Rural Movement, have all united in a call for an end to patents on seeds. This demand from such a broad alliance to stop the monopolisation of genetic resources through patents applies to all seeds, whether conventionally bred or GMO. But it obviously has particular relevance to the current negotiations in the European Union on new GMOs (NGTs). These negotiations are currently stalled over this very issue, as well as the refusal of the European Commission and a good number of EU governments to allow any traceability, labelling, or transparency with new GMOs.

How billionaires are destroying Africa’s agriculture (video)
In a must-watch video from The Guardian, Neelam Tailor exposes how billionaires like Bill Gates are destroying Africa’s agriculture. The video covers the criminalisation of farmer seed saving.

Africa: Countries asked to withdraw law that criminalises traditional seed savers
Kenya’s Seed and Plant Variety Act not only says all seeds must be certified by the government, but directly prohibits smallholder farmers from selling or sharing indigenous seeds or saving their seeds for the next harvest. Penalties include up to two years in jail or a 1 million Kenyan shilling (nearly $8,000 US) fine. Kenyan peasant farmers have long protested against this draconian law, which they say is a threat to food security and favours large-scale farmers. Kenya introduced the law because it is a signatory to the UPOV 1991 Act, which applies to all countries that are signatory to this international convention that gives powerful monopoly rights to commercial seed developers. Food system activists in Africa are campaigning for countries like Kenya to withdraw from UPOV, and for those countries that have not yet signed onto UPOV to keep out of its trap.

Top 10 agribusiness giants: Corporate concentration in food and farming in 2025
A new report examines the state of corporate concentration in six sectors critical to agriculture: commercial seeds, pesticides, synthetic fertilisers, farm machinery, animal pharmaceuticals and livestock genetics. Corporate consolidation has increased in recent years in most of these sectors and four of them – seeds, pesticides, agricultural machinery and animal pharmaceuticals – meet the definition of an oligopoly, in that just four companies (Bayer, Corteva, Syngenta and BASF in the case of seeds) control more than 40% of the market. The report also highlights corporate investment in new technologies, like digital platforms, artificial intelligence (AI) and gene editing, which are likely to deepen corporate power in the food system.

Just 100 corporations behind a fifth of global extractive conflicts, study reveals – and Bayer-Monsanto is one of them
Just one hundred corporations are behind a fifth of the documented extractive conflicts worldwide, exposing how companies from the Global North seize resources and profits, while social and ecological harms are imposed on the Global South, according to a study. The most conflictive 100 corporations – including Bayer-Monsanto – represent only 2% of the 5,500 companies documented in the Global Environmental Justice Atlas (EJAtlas) and yet are involved in 20% of the conflicts analysed.

GMOs – stories from the frontlines of GM agriculture (video)
An animated short video from Pesticide Action Network tells the GMO story from the farmers’ points of view. Corporations told farmers their seeds weren’t good enough or modern enough – when the real problem was local seeds weren’t profitable enough for corporate shareholders. The video explains the impacts of GMO seeds and the toxic chemicals that go with them.

It’s not a broken system – from food to development, it’s a masterpiece of control
“Industrial agriculture is not a system in crisis,” writes Colin Todhunter – “It is a system in command. Engineered with precision, it reflects the civilisational logic of industrial modernity: domination over cooperation, profit over sufficiency, scale over ecology. It is not malfunctioning – it is functioning exactly as designed.”

NON-GMO SUCCESSES

Non-GM bean breeding success claimed as GM breakthrough
In what has become a time-honoured tradition, yet another non-GM breeding success has been proclaimed a triumph of genetic engineering in an article written by Lucy Carter and published in The Guardian. The article says that three bean varieties have been developed in the UK. The varieties were developed by Prof Eric Holub at the University of Warwick. They reportedly “can germinate fast and in cold soils”. Prof Holub told The Guardian that the beans were made using "conventional breeding and genetics" – the latter referring to gene mapping, a biotechnology which was used to identify the desirable genes but which doesn’t result in a GMO. Yet bizarrely, Lucy Carter – or, perhaps more likely, a tabloid-minded editor – managed to headline her article, “Beans are being genetically engineered to grow in the UK”! Was this an innocent mistake, or the latest in a long history of deception, prompted by the decades-long catalogue of failures of promised GM “solutions” as against the astonishing successes of conventional non-GMO breeding? More on those successes here.

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Review 587 – GMOs in General