GMO News

GM banana lauded for “saving” the fruit—despite promising non-GMO varieties

World’s first GM banana will provide a “safety net” for Australia’s $1.3 billion Cavendish banana industry The Panama Disease Tropical Race 4 (TR4) poses a threat to several banana varieties, including the Cavendish—a major export crop for Australia. Queensland scientists have developed the QCAV-4, a genetically modified Cavendish variety, to provide a “safety net” for […]

Rotten tomato: Biotech company makes false claim about its GMO purple tomato

Norfolk Healthy Produce says its patented GMO technology is the only way to develop a purple flesh tomato containing antioxidants but Oregon State University developed an antioxidant-rich purple tomato more than a decade ago using traditional plant breeding. Norfolk Healthy Produce, a UK-based biotechnology company that developed a much-hyped purple tomato, claims on its website […]

The American Chestnut Foundation pulls support for embattled GMO American Chestnut Tree

A much-hyped GMO solution to reviving the American Chestnut Tree in the U.S. is withering on the vine—like other GMO promises. In a December press release The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF) announced withdrawing their support for the “Darling 58” genetically engineered American chestnut tree “for several pending regulatory petitions that would authorize distribution of transgenic Darling trees […]

Genetically modified crops aren’t a solution to climate change, despite what the biotech industry says

By Anneleen Kenis, Lecturer in Political Ecology and Environmental Justice, Brunel University London and Barbara Van Dyck, Research Fellow in Political Agroecology, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) The European Commission launched a proposal in July 2023 to deregulate a large number of plants manufactured using new genetic techniques. Despite extraordinary attempts by the Spanish presidency to force […]

New IFOAM publication establishes safety and risk assessment protocol for new GMO technologies

The IFOAM Seeds Platform has published the Global Safety & Risk Assessment Protocol for New Genomic Technologies, a new guidance for governments and the private sector for the assessment and regulation of new GMOs (also called NGTs or New Genomic Technologies). This new and highly disruptive technology is an existential threat to organic and agroecological systems worldwide and […]