GeneWatch UK
The aim of this report is to look at the economic, environmental and social impacts of growing RR crops and newer HT crops. This report reviews more than 25 years of experience with this technology.
We conclude that the cultivation of GM HT crops may be regarded as a temporary aberration, rather than the revolution originally proclaimed by the proponents of these crops. The growing failure of RoundUp Ready crops, due to the spread of glyphosate resistant (GR) weeds, provides an opportunity to phase out the use of RR crops and adopt new methods and technologies. The priority should be to reduce and replace the use of herbicides: not to replace RR crops with other herbicide-tolerant crops, whether or not these are GM crops or produced by different methods. It is particularly important that RR crops are not pushed into new countries which have so far avoided stepping onto the “transgenic treadmill”, in which farmers are locked in to paying for ever more expensive seeds and herbicides. In seeking to expand markets for RR crops into new countries, the industry is dumping a failed technology on them.
