Tag: gmo

GM crops fuel rise in pesticide use despite early promises, study shows

Spread of GM crops has not contributed to chemical reductions or land reclamations, but to increased use of the pesticides they were claimed to curtail. Report: Claire Robinson

GM crops have increased agriculture’s dependence on pesticides rather than reducing it, a study published in April 2025 found.

Drawing on data from four GM crops – Bt cotton, herbicide-tolerant (HT) soybean, HT and/or Bt maize, and HT canola, the researchers – including agricultural development expert Prof Glenn Davis Stone from Washington and Lee University and Bt cotton expert K. R. Kranthi of the International Cotton Advisory Committee – traced the surge in chemical use over three decades.

They found a paradox: while GM seeds were supposed to reduce pesticide use, their introduction caused pesticide use to soar. The researchers explain this outcome using the Jevons paradox, an economic theory that dates back to 1865. British economist William Stanley Jevons argued that efficiency in resource use often leads to more, not less, consumption. The study applies this idea to GM crops, which were claimed to reduce pesticide use, but in reality have made it skyrocket.

The researchers consider the two most prevalent GM seed-pesticide technology regimes: Bt crops and herbicide-tolerant (HT) crops. Both seeds are billed as efficient technologies: HT crops are claimed to facilitate more efficient weed control, and Bt crops are claimed to control insect pests more efficiently.

However, the researchers found that, “Like other technological efficiencies… the increased use of GM crops over the past 30 years has not contributed to input reductions nor to land reclamations, but to the expansion of agricultural land and increased use of the very pesticides these technologies are purported to curtail.”

This is due to the complexity of agricultural systems: “The efficiencies of GM crops not only lower the cost for individual farmers to use, in aggregate, more pesticides; they also make those pesticides ever more essential to the political economy of agriculture through the input-intensive monocultures in which they are embedded. In fact, increases in chemical usage occur throughout these GM crop systems because technological substitutions like GM seeds cannot be separated from their cascading impacts on labour, weed and pest ecology or agricultural decision-making.”

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FDA halts Biden-era program of sending Americans’ DNA to China for genetic engineering

The Trump administration is halting companies from conducting clinical trials in China using Americans’ DNA samples in a program authorized by the Biden administration, according to the Food and Drug Administration.

The FDA said an immediate review has begun on new clinical trials that involve sending living cells of U.S. citizens to China and other hostile states for “genetic engineering and subsequent infusion back into U.S. patients — sometimes without their knowledge or consent.”

The agency moved to halt the program based on what it said is mounting evidence that some of the trials were conducted without informing people involved that their biological material was being transferred and manipulated.

The activity “may have exposed Americans’ sensitive genetic data to misuse by foreign governments including adversaries,” the FDA said in a statement Wednesday.

FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said the unacknowledged transfer of DNA samples has raised questions about the integrity of U.S. biomedical research.

“We are taking action to protect patients, restore public trust and safeguard U.S. biomedical leadership,” Dr. Makary said. “The previous administration turned a blind eye and allowed American DNA to be sent abroad — often without the knowledge or understanding of trial participants,” he said.

The FDA said the suspect transfer of Americans’ biomedical samples was the result of a December 2024 policy by the Biden administration that was put in place by the Justice Department in April.

The Biden rule imposed export controls that limited the transfer of sensitive data to countries of concern. But the Biden administration specifically approved a “sweeping exemption” that allowed U.S. companies to send trial participants’ biological samples, including DNA, for processing overseas in FDA-regulated clinical trials.

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The Weaponization of Gene-Edited Mosquitoes

There are several dimensions to the mosquito crisis. The release of gene-edited male mosquitoes, coupled with the development of a dengue and malaria vaccine

But that is but the tip of the iceberg.

According to F. William Engdahl in 2018, the weaponization of insects is on the drawing board of the Pentagon:

There is strong evidence that the Pentagon, through its research and development agency, DARPA, is developing genetically modified insects that would be capable of destroying agriculture crops of a potential enemy.

The claim has been denied by DARPA, but leading biologists have sounded the alarm on what is taking place using new “gene-editing” CRISPR technology to in effect weaponize insects.

It’s like a 21st Century update of the Biblical plague of locusts, only potentially far worse.

Under the DARPA project, Genetic Alteration Agents or viruses will be introduced into the insect population to directly influence the genetic makeup of crops.

DARPA plans to use leaf hoppers, white flies, and aphids to introduce select viruses into crops. Among other dubious claims they say it will help farmers combat ‘climate change’.

What no one can answer, especially as neither the Pentagon nor the US FDA are asking, is how will the genetically engineered viruses in the insects interact with other microorganisms in the environment?

If crops are constantly being inundated by genetically modified viruses, how could this could alter the genetics and immune systems of humans who depend on the crops?

See F. William Engdahl, Why Is the Pentagon “Weaponizing Insects”? October 30, 2018

This posting includes excerpts from Jordan Shachtel, Amie Wek and Jamie White followed by the article of F. William Engdahl.

The World Mosquito Program plans to release five billion mosquitoes into Brazil.

“And the hope is they will help save lives. [Once] you see the reductions in disease transmission, it doesn’t seem like a horror movie any more,” Scott O’Neill, director of the World Mosquito Program” (CBC, April 2023)

Implemented concurrently with the influx of 5 billion friendly mosquitoes, Brazil approved in March 2023 a vaccine against dengue.

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Baby Given World-First CRISPR Gene-Editing Treatment

In a global first, doctors in Philadelphia have used personalized CRISPR gene-editing to treat a baby with a life-threatening genetic disorder—marking a major milestone in the future of individualized medicine.

The patient is KJ Muldoon, a 9-month-old boy diagnosed shortly after birth with CPS1 deficiency, a rare and often fatal genetic condition that disrupts the body’s ability to eliminate toxic metabolic waste. “You Google ‘CPS1 deficiency,’ and it’s either fatality rate or liver transplant,” said his mother, Nicole Muldoon, in a video released by the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), where KJ received his treatment.

Instead of undergoing a liver transplant, KJ became the first person in the world to be treated with a version of CRISPR designed specifically for him. The therapy, developed by CHOP and Penn Medicine, used gene-editing technology to directly target and repair his unique genetic mutation—something that had never been done before.

“Our child is sick,” said his father, Kyle Muldoon. “We either have to get a liver transplant or give him this medicine that’s never been given to anybody before, right?”

The treatment consisted of three infusions delivered to KJ’s liver, where the CRISPR system—essentially a set of molecular scissors—sought out and edited the faulty gene. “The drug is really designed only for KJ,” said Dr. Rebecca Ahrens-Nicklas, director of CHOP’s Gene Therapy for Inherited Metabolic Disorders program. “The genetic variants that he has are specific to him. It’s personalized medicine.”

According to the study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, KJ has responded well to the therapy. He’s now able to eat a higher-protein diet—something that was previously dangerous due to his condition—and he requires fewer medications. He’ll still need long-term monitoring, but doctors say early results are promising.

“While KJ will need to be monitored carefully for the rest of his life, our initial findings are quite encouraging,” Ahrens-Nicklas said in a statement. “We hope he is the first of many to benefit from a methodology that can be scaled to fit an individual patient’s needs.”

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The Pentagon Is Using a Fabricated Chinese Threat to Build Genetically Engineered Soldiers

On April 8, a bipartisan commission chartered by Congress warned that China is rapidly advancing a terrifying new military threat: genetically engineered “super soldiers.”

The report by the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology (NSCEB) urges the U.S. to respond with a sweeping effort to militarize biotechnology. It offers little concrete evidence that such Chinese programs even exist.

In the name of national security, Washington is now pushing for deregulation, massive government investment, and human experimentation. Experts say this effort echoes Cold War-era paranoia and threatens to erode ethical boundaries in science and warfare.

A Congressional Research Service fact sheet on the report claims its contents “describe how biotechnology could potentially revolutionize agricultural production in the U.S., transform U.S. health care, and change the future of computing power.” While that may sound promising, the report’s focus is overwhelmingly on using biotechnology for military purposes, including the creation of “genetically enhanced soldiers.” The report also states that “biotechnology’s impact on surveillance could be … transformative.”

The report argues that biology could revolutionize warfare just as airpower did in the 20th century, promising new advantages in stealth, logistics, and real-time physiological monitoring of soldiers. It calls for “a fundamental rethinking” of how the U.S. uses biotech in combat.

Biotechnology also promises new advantages in stealth and mobility. Dynamic biological camouflage, for instance, could shield warfighters from thermal detection, while wearable biosensors could adjust mission parameters based on real-time physiological data. Taken together, these advances demand a fundamental rethinking of how biology supports sustained, agile military operations, revolutionizing what it means to defend the U.S., including building for, nourishing, and healing forces in the field.”

The report argues that “winning” the global biotech race will “require de-risking the domestic production of defense-related biotechnology products” and changing “military specifications” to enable biotechnology companies to sell their products to the Pentagon more easily. Repeated references are also made to the need to “reduce or remove regulatory hurdles for familiar products.” Although the report never defines “familiar products,” the term may refer to controversial and experimental technologies such as CRISPR gene editing and mRNA therapeutics.

NSCEB also calls for large-scale “biological databases” to be treated as a “strategic resource.” It urges Congress to direct the Pentagon to build commercial facilities across the country to biomanufacture products deemed “critical for DOD needs.” The U.S. government “will need to shoulder some of the risk of early-stage financing for biotechnology and encourage private investment,” such as “[streamlining] regulatory processes to alleviate unnecessary burdens and accelerate the commercialization.”

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World’s first pig to human liver transplant is carried out in major breakthrough

A pig’s liver has been transplanted into a human recipient for the first time in a ‘milestone’ for organ transfers between animals and people.

Scientists in China used a liver taken from a seven-month old Bama miniature pig which had been genetically modified to reduce the risk of rejection.

Once removed, it was kept ‘alive’ using a medical solution and chilled to 0-4C.

During the nine-hour-long surgery the recipient – a 50-year-old clinically dead man whose family had authorised the procedure – had the donor liver stitched to his blood vessels in his abdomen alongside his own liver. 

Over the next 10 days, the donor liver successfully produced bile and maintained a stable blood flow.

The team hope that rather than a long-term solution, their procedure could one day be used as a temporary treatment for patients with liver failure while they wait for a human donor.

In the UK, there are more than 11,000 deaths due to liver disease each year. Around 700 people are currently on the waiting list for a transplant, and the average wait is three to four months.

The announcement follows a slew of recent breakthroughs, including transplanting a pig’s heart into a man and a woman currently living with a pig’s kidney.

Professor Lin Wang, one of the study’s authors from the Fourth Military Medical University in Xi’an, said: ‘The liver collected from the modified pig functioned very well in the human body.

‘It’s a great achievement. This surgery was really successful.

‘We examined the blood flow in the different vessels and arteries. The flow is very smooth. It functioned very well.’

The experiment was terminated after 10 days because of requests made by the patient’s family members.

The findings, published in the journal Nature, suggest modified livers can survive and function in human bodies, but further research on long-term outcomes is needed.

‘We have the opportunity in the future to solve the problem of a patient with severe liver failure,’ Professor Wang added.

‘It is our dream to make this achievement. The pig liver could survive together with the original liver of the human being and maybe it will give it additional support.’

He also expressed a desire to conduct further research on living, non-brain-dead human beings in the future, but stressed the complications and ‘many rules’ around this.

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Hoping to revive mammoths, scientists create ‘woolly mice’

Scientists have genetically engineered mice with some key characteristics of an extinct animal that was far larger — the woolly mammoth.

This “woolly mouse” marks an important step toward achieving the researchers’ ultimate goal — bringing a woolly mammoth-like creature back from extinction, they say.

“For us, it’s an incredibly big deal,” says Beth Shapiro, chief science officer at Colossal Biosciences, a Dallas company trying to resurrect the woolly mammoth and other extinct species.

The company announced the creation of the woolly mice Tuesday in a news release and posted a scientific paper online detailing the achievement. Scientists implanted genetically modified embryos in female lab mice that gave birth to the first of the woolly pups in October.

“This is really validation that what we have in mind for our longer-term de-extinction project is really going to work,” Shapiro told NPR in an interview. The company says reviving extinct species like the mammoth, the dodo and others could help repair ecosystems. Critics, however, question whether de-extinction would be safe for the animals or environment.

Shapiro and her colleagues started by trying to identify the genes responsible for making mammoths distinctive. They compared ancient samples of genetic material from mammoths with genetic sequences of African and Asian elephants, the mammoth’s closest living relative.

These included long, woolly hair and a way of metabolizing fat that helped the animals survive well in the cold.

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GMO Tomato Project Funded by Gates Foundation and U.S. Taxpayers Hits Roadblock

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is funding research to genetically engineer tomatoes to be able to disrupt the reproductive cycle of the whitefly, a common insect that damages tomato plants, Jon Fleetwood reported on Substack.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) — a division of the U.S. Department of Defense — also funded the research as part of its “Insect Allies” project, according to a study on the tomatoes published last month in BMC Plant Biology.

Whiteflies, or Bemisia tabaci, are a common pest that drinks sap from phloem, the food-conducting tissue in tomato plant stems and leaves, sometimes causing the plant to dry up. The insects also excrete a sticky substance called honeydew, which attracts ants.

Whiteflies can decimate crops. The BMC study estimates the pest causes $2 billion in annual losses in cassava production in Africa alone, which can cause food insecurity in regions that rely on the crop.

The researchers aim to develop a genetic modification (GM) technology that could modify plants to produce proteins that target and destroy whitefly eggs. The authors note that targeting egg viability is a “unique strategy” for transgenic plants, setting it apart from most GM insecticidal plants that target adult insects.

Fleetwood raised concerns about the technology’s potential to harm human health and the environment.

“If commercialized, these ‘[t]ransgenic plants’ — genetically engineered to include genes from other species — could introduce reproductive-disrupting insecticidal compounds into the human food chain,” Fleetwood wrote.

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Bill Gates Funds Genetically Engineered Tomatoes with Insecticides Inside Them That Attack Reproduction—And Yes, You’d Eat Them

Bill Gates is funding research to genetically engineer tomatoes to produce insecticides inside their tissues, specifically targeting the reproduction of whiteflies, a destructive agricultural pest. According to a study published last month in BMC Plant Biology, these genetically engineered (GE) tomatoes express proteins designed to infiltrate and disrupt whitefly eggs.

“The molecular tools for achieving both apoplastic and phloem-specific expression of insecticidal proteins are well developed,” the study explains, highlighting the advanced genetic strategies employed.

If commercialized, these “[t]ransgenic plants”—genetically engineered to include genes from other species—could introduce reproductive-disrupting insecticidal compounds into the human food chain.

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New Zealand media’s go-to source for expert opinions supports a bill to deregulate the use of genetic modification; Dr. Guy Hatchard responds

Guy Hatchard, PhD, was formerly Director of Natural Products at Genetic ID (now FoodChain ID) a global food safety testing and certification company. He presented to the original Royal Commission on Genetic Modification in New Zealand in 2000 which helped to clarify the safety ground rules and labelling requirements for genetically modified organisms (“GMOs”) which currently form a part of the New Zealand Hazardous Substances and New Organisms (“HSNO”) legislation. Dr. Hatchard is retired and has no financial interest in the outcomes of the current legislative initiative to deregulate biotechnology experimentation.

The following is his formal response to the Science Media Centre (“SMC”) – an “independent” source of information for the media on all issues related to research, science and innovation – which has published expert opinions in support of the Bill.

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