Beyond GM has announced important news about a significant legal challenge they have just launched – and how you can help make it happen. In May, the UK government quietly brought in new regulations that fundamentally change how genetically modified organisms are regulated in England. The Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Regulations 2025 create a new category of GMOs, called “precision bred organisms” (PBOs), and exempt these from the food and environmental safety requirements of other types of GMOs. This is a sleight of hand that has serious implications for the environment and the food system. It allows these "precision bred" GMOs to enter the food system and wider environment without labelling, without adequate traceability systems and without any proper safety testing or impact assessments. Please, if you can, donate to Beyond GM's legal action "fighting fund" today. GMWatch

 

 

Some scientists believe current regulations on agricultural gene editing are too restrictive. However, a new paper from the University of Adelaide highlights the need for clear, well-defined rules to ensure emerging technologies are applied safely and ethically. Published in The Plant Journal, the focused review — authored by Dr Emily Buddle, Michail Ivanov, and Professor Rachel Ankeny — argues that regulation is essential not only for safety, but also for fostering public engagement and trust in gene-editing innovation. “Regulatory decisions are not just about scientific facts or economic benefits. They always involve value judgements, especially concerning safety, risk and societal benefits,” Buddle explains. The paper concludes, "Regulation permits regulators and diverse publics to engage with research and assess whether the particular application of gene technology is desirable and beneficial beyond the laboratory bench or field." [GMW: The new paper is here.] Seed World

 

 

Moolec Science Limited, a food ingredient company focused on producing animal proteins and nutritional oils in plants, has announced that it has received a Notice of Allowance from the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for its proprietary Piggy Sooy technology - soybean plant engineered to express high levels of porcine heme proteins in their seeds. Nasdaq

 

 

In 2024 Moolec received approval from the USDA for its "plant-grown" meat proteins, with the government body stating that its GM soybeans are unlikely to pose an increased risk of pests compared to non-modified soybeans. In its regulatory review, the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) didn’t find “any plausible pathway” by which Moolec’s Piggy Sooy brings a higher pest risk. This means it isn’t subject to the APHIS regulation that governs the movement of GMOs. The regulatory clearance will enable the company to plant and transport Piggy Sooy soybeans without needing any permits, as is the case with non-GM ingredients, according to co-founder and CEO Gastón Paladini. Green Queen

 

 

For a glimpse of the future that the fake food industry and its allies are planning for us, see a list of companies exhibiting their products at a conference on "food security" hosted by a military trade fare organisation, Food Sec&Tech, in Israel in 2023. The list includes Sea2Cell's "cell-cultured seafood production system based on proprietary growth factors technology" and Eggmented's combo of "bioinformatics and precision fermentation to produce protein functionality, beginning with a clean-label, vegan, non-GM functional alternative to egg and methylcellulose".

Israel is keen on bioreactor-grown fake foods, being the first country to approve the sale of lab-cultured meat based on beef. Its pursuit of fake foods can be explained by the country's lack of land suitable for farming and its ever-worsening water shortage, as well as its strong focus on biotech. But it's certain that the sector and its investors haven't confronted the energy and resource implications of scaling up bioreactor fake food production.

The 2023 event was attended by the UK Food Standards Agency's (FSA) Chief Science Advisor Robin May. The FSA has launched a "pioneering regulatory programme for cell-cultivated products", aimed at bringing new fake food products to market faster. GMWatch comment on material from various sources

 

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