The New Dark Age

In 2024, the EU once again recorded alerts about GMO contamination. Of the 24 alerts, the vast majority concerned unauthorised GM rice, but also papaya, soy, flax and maize. Two cases of contamination by GM microorganisms were also reported, one of which even forced the Belgian authorities to issue a public statement recalling a product. In three cases, the nature of the illegal GMO was not specified. One GM maize, one flax, two papayas and one soybean were also found in 2024, either on European territory or at its border. The countries of origin of these contaminations are geographically diverse, including Mexico, Russia, Ukraine, Romania and Thailand. As with the cases of rice contamination, GM papaya from Thailand has been a long-standing contaminant in Europe, with the first cases reported in 2004 following an alert by Greenpeace. However, it is rarer for illegally present GM papaya to come from Mexico, a country where, like Thailand, no GM papaya is authorised for cultivation. Inf’OGM (French language article)