A look at the marketing promises and what’s behind them
Friends of the Earth Europe, together with BUND/FoE Germany and Global 2000/FoE Austria, takes a critical look at the marketing promises in the new GMOs debate with a new fact-checking report. Big Agri has been pushing hard for a quick and wide deregulation of EU GMO rules to exclude new GMOs from labelling, traceability and safety checks on the false basis that they would deliver on climate action and world hunger.
One of Big Agri’s main greenwash attempt is to make believe that new GM plants that are resistant to pests and diseases could contribute to pesticide reduction. However, the opposite occurred with the first-generation of GM crops. In countries where they are widely grown, no pesticide reduction has been achieved since their introduction 25 years ago. In some countries, pesticide use has multiplied. Today, 80% of GM plants are herbicide resistant to cultivation. This has led to a massive increase in herbicide-resistant weeds, leading to the extreme increase in consumption of herbicides. A look at the development pipeline of corporations shows that plants with herbicide resistance continue to be developed with new GMOs.
