GM safeguards scrapped in the UK

February 2022

As Westminster continues its love affair with high-tech industrial agriculture, the dismantling of GM safeguards in the UK is underway.

Towards the end of 2021, our Environment Secretary announced regulatory exemptions for field trials of "plants produced by genetic technologies where genetic changes could have occurred naturally or could have been a result of traditional breeding methods".

GM cotton in India

February 2022

Once upon a time in India, farmers grew indigenous ('desi') Asiatic cotton.

Desi cotton was grown in multi-cropping systems which provided back-up crops if one of them failed. It could be planted at a high density to increase yield and had a short season which reduced pest exposure. This traditional cotton had good tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses, including bollworm, saline conditions and drought. Today, the crop accounts for less than 3% of the cotton area in India.

GM staples in Africa

February 2022

The vast continent of Africa has long been a key target for GM agriculture [1,2]. So far, three GM crop types (cotton, soya and maize) all with the standard insect-resistance or herbicide-tolerance traits have been released across six African countries, the most widely adopted one being 'Bt' insecticidal cotton. These are all commodity crops designed for maximum yield, and are promoted as a tool to boost agricultural productivity and alleviate food insecurity. There has, however, been a clear gap between the promises and the reality.

A study published in 2021 explored this problem.

GM wheat in Argentina

February 2022

In 2004, the US, Canadian and European wheat markets breathed a sigh of relief when Monsanto yielded to pressure and withdrew its glyphosate-tolerant GM wheat from the pipeline.

Predictably, it was just a matter of time before GM wheat popped up again, this time as 'HB4' with combined drought-resistance and tolerance to glufosinate herbicide.

HB4 has now been approved by Argentina: no surprise there, because the country has long been a key route used by the agrichemical industry as a bridgehead to the rest of Latin America for the (legal and illegal) dissemination of its products.