GMOs on the Landscape

Different kinds of GMOs impact the environment in different ways, directly and indirectly. 

For example, introducing herbicide-resistant GMOs such as corn, soy, cotton, alfalfa and sugarbeets, has dramatically increased herbicide use in the US.⁹⁴ Herbicides reduce the diversity of plant life and can be toxic to non-target pests, including soil microbes and beneficial pollinators.^95,96 Ultimately, increased herbicide use drives the emergence of superweeds, and desperate farmers turn to more harmful and concentrated herbicides.⁹⁷ Similarly, the pesticide produced by insect-resistant GMOs — which produce insecticide within the plant's cells — has encouraged the emergence of superbugs immune to its effects.⁹⁸

Once released into the environment, GMOs may contaminate other organisms through pollen transfer or seed spillage. Contamination events undermine the genetic integrity of native and wild varieties, endangers future plant-breeding efforts and can result in new superweeds.^99,100 GMO contamination of non-GMO canola, corn and alfalfa is well-documented in North America; unapproved genetically modified wheat has been found growing opportunistically in the US and Canada.^{101,102,103,104}

Biotech is increasingly interested in developing genetically modified microorganisms as soil amendments.¹⁰⁵ However, GMO microorganisms pose unique environmental risks that could be unpredictable, irreversible and profound. Microorganisms have a unique ability to transfer their genetic material to other organisms (known as horizontal gene transfer), making GMO contamination a virtual certainty. Microorganisms are present in exponentially greater numbers than GMO crops, which elevates the risk.¹⁰⁶ For example, whereas a corn farmer might grow thousands of plants per acre, a tablespoon of soil contains billions of soil microorganisms.

New genomic techniques that remove farming from the landscape, such as lab-grown meat and "ferming", do not eliminate environmental risks. Critics state that the environmental impacts of lab-based GMOs could be “as bad or worse than animal agriculture" due to the energy requirements and use of fossil fuels and fracking.¹⁰⁷