The International Picture

A snapshot

  • Approximately 20 countries have deregulated some gene technology processes. The proposed changes in New Zealand would be out of line even with most of these 20 countries.

  • Most GM agricultural production is in the Americas for commodity markets. Reference: https://www.statista.com/statistics/271897/leading-countries-by-acreage-of-genetically-modified-crops/

  • Many countries are not growing GMOs. For example, in Europe, only one GMO – a pest-resistant corn - has been cultivated in Spain and Portugal and accounts for less than 1% of the corn production area in the EU. Source: USDA. 2024. Biotechnology and Other New Production Technologies. European Union.

  • Many countries are not growing GMOs, for the same or similar reasons to NZ. These include historical reasons around consumers perception of food safety, increased risk of contamination, the potential for consumer resistance and reduced economic returns.

    International commercial GMO production to date

  • Four broad acre crops (soy bean, maize, cotton and canola) and two traits (herbicide tolerance or pest resistance) account for 99.9% of all GMO agricultural production.

  •  In response to market resistance, GM agricultural production has been quarantined to biofuels; animal feed and unlabelled food ingredients. (Reference: John Caradus states that 70-90% of all production goes to animal feed. Caradus J. 2023. Genetic modification – benefits and risks for New Zealand grassland production systems. In Journal of New Zealand Grasslands 85: 41-51.)

      A few gene edited products are on the market. Production is niche. We are aware of:

  •  A high-oleic soybean in China, approved for release in 2023. (Reference: Global Times. “China issues first safety certificate for plant gene editing”. May 5 2023.)

  •  CRISPR-edited waxy corn approved in three countries in the Americas (Reference: Corteva, Form 10-12B/A to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, May 6, 2019).

  • A genome edited tomato in Japan that has limited release. (Reference: USDA. Global Agricultural Information (GAIN) Biotechnology and Other New Production Technologies. Report on Japan.)

  •  Gene edited lettuce in the USA. (Comment: The Genetic Literacy Project lists 14 gene edited organisms. However, some of these are approved but not commercialised; still involve generation 1 GM techniques; never made it to market or were not commercial successes.)

    Some examples of gene edited organisms offered in the market

  • Of the gene edited organisms that have made it to market, a herbicide resistant canola (produced using ODM) and a high fatty acid soybean were both pulled from the US market due to low yields.

    (Reference : For the canola, see Hous. Cas. Co. v. Cibus U.S. LLC. 19-cv-00828- BAS-LL). Cibus announced its decision to divest its canola breeding programme to the Canadian Farmers’ Business Network in 2021. No SU Canola – developed using the gene editing technique, ODM – has been commercially available since then.  For the soybean, see: Issa B. 2020. Calyxt To Exit Farming Operations And Focus On Seed Science. Seeking Alpha.)

  • Scientists are still learning how the techniques work. The gene edited “hornless cattle” is a relevant example for New Zealand farmers. The USFDA identified some 4,000 base pairs of “unexpected” insertions in the cattle, including bacterial DNA that contained foreign genes conferring resistance to antibiotics. The developer had understood and told farmers there were no unexpected changes.

    (Reference: Norris, A.L.; Lee, S.S.; Greenlees, K.J.; Tadesse, D.A.; Miller, M.F.; Lombardi, H.A. Template plasmid integration in germline genome-edited cattle. Nat Biotechnol 2020;38:163-164. Piore A. 2017. This Genetics Company Is Editing Horns Off Milk Cows. Bloomberg Business Weekly.)