GMWatch News Review archive

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.