New paper lays out problems of developing gene-edited GM crops

Announcing the passing into law of the Genetic Technology Act, which removes regulatory safeguards around a whole subclass of GMOs, notably those produced using gene editing, the Westminster government breathlessly enthused that the UK had now joined “Argentina, the US, Australia and Japan”, which “have already enacted similar legislation, driving innovation on a global scale and helping fight the greatest challenges facing the world”. 

I can’t pretend that GMWatch was waiting with bated breath for the “new GM”-based “innovation on a global scale” that was supposed to be pouring out of these countries, especially given the dismal performance and fate of the handful of gene-edited crops that they've released. 

But the history of GM crops has settled into a pattern of hyped reports of supposed successes continuing for a good few years before they give way to sad tales of technology failure. So at this early stage of the “new GM” journey, we were expecting something reasonably upbeat about gene-edited GM crops from these deregulatory pioneering countries. 

What we didn’t expect just yet is the catalogue of abject failure...