Yesterday, 13 May, GMWatch received the following email notification from farm ministry DEFRA: "Over the last few weeks, the secondary legislation necessary to implement the Precision Breeding Act 2023 for plants in England successfully passed through Parliament. On 13 May, the legislation was signed by Minister Zeichner. Following a six-month WTO implementation period, the new regulatory framework will commence on 14 November 2025. From this point, marketing applications can be submitted for approval to DEFRA and the FSA." Email from DEFRA to GMWatch (no link in header)

 

 

In late 2024, Bill Gates sparked outrage in India after describing the country as “a kind of laboratory to try things” during a podcast with Reid Hoffman, Colin Todhunter reports. Gates emphasised the nation’s stability as a “testing ground” for global initiatives. His remarks were widely condemned. Social media erupted, with many Indians accusing Gates of reducing their nation to a mere experimental ground for Western interests. Social media users labelled Indians as “guinea pigs” in Gates’ laboratory and questioned the ethics and motives behind such experimentation. The controversy resurfaced with the 5 May 2025 announcement that India became the first country to officially release two gene-edited rice varieties. Even though these varieties were developed by the ICAR (Indian Council for Agricultural Research), civil society groups, notably the Coalition for a GM-Free India, highlight that gene-editing tools like CRISPR/Cas9 are proprietary technologies, raising concerns about seed sovereignty and farmers’ rights. GMWatch

 

 

European agriculture and food policies are once again at a crossroads, and at the centre of heated debate. In September 2024 Ursula von der Leyen launched the report of the "Strategic Dialogue (SD) on the Future of EU agriculture". This Dialogue was meant to steer the EU's agricultural policies over the coming years. But based on documents obtained through Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to the European Commission and interviews with insiders, Corporate Europe Observatory shows that lobbying by corporations and other vested interests has undermined the positive outcomes of the Strategic Dialogue. Now Europe seems once again to be left with "business as usual" under the pretext of simplification and competitiveness. Corporate Europe Observatory

 

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