GMWatch News Review archive

Review 603: GMOs in General, Part II

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Welcome to this Review, which leads with more URGENT UPDATES ON NEW GMOs, including how to take action, and goes on to cover GMO CONTAMINATION and CORPORATE CONTROL, as well as developments on SYNBIO, TECHNO-DELUSION, and COVID ORIGINS.

URGENT UPDATES ON NEW GMOs 
Protest against deregulation of new GMOs
On 17 June the European Parliament will decide on the deregulation of new GMO techniques. The day before, 16 June, a protest will take place in Strasbourg against the threat of a slew of patents on seeds, contamination of organics, and the removal of safety checks, transparency and traceability.
WHEN? 16 June from 8 am to 12 pm
WHERE? In front of the European Parliament in Strasbourg
EU deregulation: Potential consequences (video)
If you want to know why the European Commission’s proposal to deregulate new genetic engineering techniques is so irresponsible and dangerous, check out this interview with Claire Robinson of GMWatch, available on YouTube, from 2023 with the Dutch newspaper De Andere Krant, where Claire explains exactly why there are major risks to health and the environment, as well as a critical loss of farmer and consumer choice. 
EU Take Action: Blacked-out ingredients
You still have time to send an email to your Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) asking them to stand for strict regulations for all new GMOs! The action is available in different languages.
EU Take Action: Grab MEPs’ attention on LinkedIn
On LinkedIn you can engage directly with European Parliamentarians, where they are most active and visible. You can comment on their personal LinkedIn pages with just one click at this link, with help in constructing a comment.
EU Take Action: Don’t be shy, call your MEPs!
The most impactful thing we can do is to call the MEPs directly. Personal calls from concerned citizens are taken very seriously by them. And it’s so easy to do – at the link above you can find everything you need for placing your call, including suggested comments.
Webinar: The last exit before new GM plants and GM microorganisms get out of control?
11 June 2026
14:00-15:30 CEST
The future of our biodiversity is at risk: Two EU proposals to lower environmental safety standards for genetically engineered organisms would allow far-reaching interventions in both plants and microorganisms. In this webinar, biosafety experts call on political decision makers to carefully consider the environmental risks. Register now!
Future regulation of new GM plants and seed patents
Ahead of the decisive votes in the European Parliament on 15 June (ENVI Committee) and 17 June (Plenary) on the deregulation of GM “new genomics techniques” (NGT) plants, a No Patents on Seeds workshop explained how the issue of seed patents will shape the future of food and agriculture in Europe. A recording will be made available at the link above.
UK Take Action: Ask your MP to stand up for transparency, choice and accountability
The High Court has found that the Government acted unlawfully when introducing their new gene-editing Regulations without adequate transparency and labelling of “precision-bred” GMOs (PBOs). As Ministers consider what happens next, now is the time to ask your MP to ensure that transparency, traceability, informed choice and accountability are put back at the heart of the system. Use Beyond GM’s link to email your MP – it’s easy to do.
Latin America mobilises against the advance of gene editing
Groups and leading figures in biodiversity and agroecology from 15 Latin American countries met recently in Quito, Ecuador to coordinate actions against the deregulated expansion of new GMOs, often without adequate mechanisms for public information, traceability, or citizen participation.  They established a regional strategy focusing on enhanced monitoring, public awareness, and policy advocacy to protect biodiversity, peasant seeds, and food sovereignty from the damaging impacts of these technologies.
Gene Editing in Latin America: Dangers, Traps, and Problems
A newly released (Spanish language) book from Alianza Biodiversidad – co-authored by a broad coalition of scientists and environmental advocates – provides a useful handbook on how gene editing is acting as a corporate trap designed to bypass Latin America’s existing GM safety laws and so evade risk evaluation – and keep consumers in the dark. The book also maps out exactly where experimental and commercial trials are taking place across the continent. Available to download for free at the link above. There are also accompanying multimedia materials.
GMO CONTAMINATION
Argentina fights to save huge soy exports after Dutch rejections
Argentina is scrambling to keep its soy flowing to Europe after an unapproved GMO strain, HB4, developed by Bioceres, was detected in multiple shipments arriving in the Netherlands, a key entry hub to Europe for such imports. Argentine farmers and exporters are said to be actively attempting to quarantine and segregate the rogue GMO crops to ensure they do not mix with non-GMO shipments destined for the EU. The EU has also flagged some banned GMOs in Brazilian soymeal cargos.
The Canadian GMO mustard wars
There are major concerns that a new GMO mustard plant will ruin the pure mustard Canadian farmers grow for the premium Dijon bottlers in France, the US and Japan, as well as other specialty mustards. The industry is worth about $150 million (C$209 million) in exports annually – only a fraction of the $8.9 billion (C$12.4 billion) canola exports market. But in a geography where canola fails more often than it flourishes, mustard has been the lifeblood of many farms since growers started planting it 90 years ago. “It [the GM mustard] has the potential of wrecking a whole industry,” said farmer Norm Hall, chair of SaskMustard, which represents Saskatchewan’s mustard growers. The group is lobbying the government in Ottawa to keep the crop out of Canada.
China rejects more Indian rice consignments on alleged GMO presence
China continues to reject Indian non-basmati rice consignments, alleging they contain GMOs. Sources say about 70 consignments have been rejected in total so far because of GMO contamination. Now China has suspended the import licences of three Indian rice exporters due to GMO contamination of their consignments. The move is expected to have far reaching consequences on India’s rice trade, say exporters, given the importance of China’s rice market. The Indian government maintains that no GM food crop is grown in the country. But India has launched two GM gene-edited rice varieties, including field testing them, though we don't know if these are the same varieties that China alleges are present in consignments.
Canada Action Alert: Loblaws is selling GM tomatoes
In Canada? Ask Loblaw to remove GMO purple tomatoes from their stores. No clear labelling = no clear choice.
CORPORATE CONTROL
New study shows how 15 countries criminalise saving seeds
A new study, “When saving seeds becomes a crime”, authored by Karine Peschard, Associate Research Fellow at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, aims to document the criminalisation of farmers’ rights to save, use, exchange, and sell seeds under plant breeders’ rights (PBR) laws. The study reviews the modalities of criminalisation and their impact on farmers, based on case studies. Peschard concludes: “A farmer who allegedly infringes PBR does not represent a threat to society that justifies the intervention of the state and criminal sanctions.” On the contrary: “It is the criminalisation of farmers’ seed practices that represents a threat to the public interest and to society given its manifold negative impacts on peasant seed systems, agrobiodiversity, farmers’ rights and livelihoods, food security and the right to food.” 
The N’Djamena Declaration: Africa’s seeds belong to its peoples
Participants in the 4th Pan-African Conference on Seed Governance have adopted a landmark declaration on the future of Africa’s farmer-managed seed systems, in which they call for the full recognition, protection and implementation of farmers’ rights and seed sovereignty across Africa. Farmer-Managed Seed Systems (FMSS) remain the backbone of African agriculture – providing 90% of seeds used by millions of farmers across the continent – yet they face growing threats from restrictive seed laws, corporate concentration, and digital technologies that risk converting Africa’s biological heritage into private assets. Find out more at the link above, where you can also download a copy of the declaration.
Bayer sued for allegedly monopolising the US market for GMO corn seeds
Bayer used illegal and anti-competitive practices to monopolise the US market for genetically engineered corn seeds, reaping “hundreds of millions, if not billions, of ill-gotten dollars”, according to a federal lawsuit that adds to legal troubles plaguing the Germany-based company. US crop farmers have struggled with high costs of seeds, fuel and fertiliser, and are facing a fourth straight year of shrinking margins. The lawsuit alleges Bayer raised costs for farmers and independent seed companies by controlling the market for corn seeds engineered to resist its Roundup weedkiller.
Bayer promises to suspend “unfair provisions” in seed contracts for several years
Bayer has promised the US Dept of Justice to suspend “unfair provisions” in seed contracts for several years. But Bill Freese, science director at the Center for Food Safety, says “these modest agreements with Bayer do not go nearly far enough to help American farmers suffering from Trump’s anti-farmers policies”.
US farm lobby pushes AGOA leverage to expand GMO access in African markets
US agricultural industry groups are urging Washington to use the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) as leverage to pressure African governments into adopting more permissive regulations on genetically modified crops. In a letter to the Office of the US Trade Representative, a coalition of 15 American agricultural organisations, including the National Corn Growers Association and the American Farm Bureau Federation, called on the Trump administration to make agricultural biotechnology (i.e. GMO) policy a central condition in determining African countries’ continued eligibility for AGOA trade preferences (duty-free access for specific items). The groups argued that restrictive biotechnology regulations across much of Africa are limiting market access for US agricultural exports, particularly genetically modified maize and other biotech products widely cultivated in the US. 
“Most dangerous corporation in America” is handed the keys to US farmer data
Palantir – the AI-based company that has been called “the most dangerous corporation in America” – is being handed the keys to US farmer data. The US Dept of Agriculture is contracting with one of today’s most notorious and antidemocratic corporations. What could possibly go wrong? Palantir’s founder is Peter Thiel, a billionaire venture capitalist and Trump donor. Many observers have expressed alarm about Thiel’s and Palantir’s role in the rise of an authoritarian surveillance state and threats to human rights worldwide.
US strategies to push GM maize/soybean in India
The US pressuring India to legalise large-scale illegal herbicide-tolerant GM crops led to an investigation by India’s intelligence agencies. But six years after the last reports on the matter, the investigations seem to have been silently withdrawn.
Who owns the seed? The corporate takeover India’s farmers are fighting
In December 2025, hundreds of thousands of farmers across India burned copies of the draft Seeds Bill 2025 outside their village offices. The date was not chosen randomly – it mirrored the mass mobilisations of 2020-21, when the same farming communities spent over a year camped on Delhi’s borders until three farm laws were withdrawn. This time, they are fighting something quieter but no less consequential: who gets to own a seed. The Seeds Bill 2025, released by the Ministry of Agriculture in November 2025 for public consultation, is India’s fourth attempt in two decades to replace the Seeds Act of 1966 – previous drafts in 2004, 2010, and 2019 collapsed under sustained opposition. Samyukta Kisan Morcha, the collective formed during the 2020-21 agitation, has described the bill as introducing “a heavily centralised and corporatised regulatory system that risks weakening farmer-centred protections”.
Take Action: Defend seed sovereignty in the Philippines!
The ongoing EU–Philippines trade negotiations are pushing Philippines to align with the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV), which redefines seeds as private property. For majority of small scale Filipino farmers, this will directly threaten their livelihoods. Support their call against this deal! 
Is Bangladesh-US trade deal a backdoor for GMO dumping?
Bangladesh signed the US Reciprocal Trade Agreement in February 2026. Within two weeks, the US Supreme Court ruled that the tariff regime underpinning such agreements – imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) – violated federal law. Malaysia backed out of the agreement, but Bangladesh did not. Farida Akhter, former adviser to the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock under the interim government and executive director of UBINIG, writes that the US trade deal is nothing but a dumping of GMOs through meat and dairy products. She points out that the agreement mandates that Bangladesh allow GM products without pre-market approval, labelling, or special regulation, and that US livestock are fed with GM soybean and corn. She says Bangladesh should follow the Malaysian decision to back out.
SYNBIO
Synbio milk nutritionally inferior to cow’s milk; contains 93 uncharacterised fungal metabolites and 236 fungal proteins
A new publication marks the entry into the peer-reviewed literature of some remarkable lab findings on synbio milk. Synbio is short for synthetic biology, an extreme form of GM. The synbio fake milk that was analysed in the lab tests was produced from genetically engineered yeast in a process known as “precision fermentation”. The testing showed that contrary to the manufacturer’s claims, the synbio milk is nothing like cow’s milk and the production process is anything but precise. In the study, published in Scientific Reports, multi-omics profiling (in-depth molecular analysis) found that synbio milk differs nutritionally from cow’s milk and contains 93 uncharacterised fungal metabolites and 236 fungal proteins. The findings build on safety questions about other foods derived from GM micro-organisms, such as Impossible Foods’ soy leghemoglobin, which is added to fake meat burgers in the US to give a ‘bleeding’ appearance, like undercooked meat.
TECHNO-DELUSION
A robot to pollinate genetically modified tomatoes
Agritech is the convergence of genetics, robotics and digital technology. In China, scientists have genetically modified a tomato to be more easily pollinated by a robot, which is itself controlled by a network of connected computers, commonly referred to as “artificial intelligence” (“AI”). This “innovation” is, above all, an illustration of the current headlong rush toward ever more complex techno-fixes.
Rubber from dandelions?
QuberTech, a start-up company at Norwich Research Park, is aiming to transform the industrial production of rubber by gene editing dandelions. GMW comments that the current level of rubber production from dandelions is... zero. Even if the dandelion system works at a small scale at the experimental level, upscaling the venture to make a meaningful contribution to rubber production is pie-in-the-sky.
COVID ORIGINS
CIA whistleblower alleges COVID lab-leak findings were suppressed by agency
CIA analysts concluded multiple times that COVID-19 most likely originated from a laboratory, but intelligence leaders repeatedly altered those findings in official summaries later offered to the public, a CIA whistleblower testified before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee. James Erdman III, a longtime Central Intelligence Agency operations officer who was recently assigned to a detail investigating COVID origins within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, testified under subpoena that analysts inside the CIA and the broader intelligence community favoured a laboratory-origin assessment in the years immediately following the pandemic’s outbreak. But CIA managers suppressed or altered those conclusions, he asserted.
Developments on COVID’s lab origins (video)
Tony Fauci labelled a study he funded “gain-of-function” and then testified under oath he had never funded such a study. Dan Proft interviews journalist Paul D. Thacker.