Alert: No GMO Salad
Bayer (formerly Monsanto) is getting ready to sell genetically engineered (genetically modified or GM) mustard greens that are gene edited to taste less mustardy. These salad greens could be sold in grocery stores in the US and Canada in early 2025. Bayer also wants to sell the GM seeds to home gardeners and market gardeners.
CBAN Alert – December 2024: Bayer to Launch GM Non-Mustardy Mustard Greens
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If you are a market gardener, home gardener or greens producer, please tell us where you purchase your Brassica juncea and lettuce seeds/salad mixes. Click here to share your information and comments, and to subscribe for updates.
If you are a consumer who does not grow any vegetables, write to the head office of your grocery store and ask them not to sell any GM greens or other GM vegetables. Click here for the grocery store contacts.
Share the CBAN alert: Bayer to Launch GM Non-Mustardy Mustard Greens
If you have information and comments to share, or any questions, please email Fionna Tough at outreach@cban.ca
GM Non-Mustardy Mustard Greens
These genetically modified leafy greens are the first gene-edited vegetable in North America (produced using CRISPR), and only the second genetically modified vegetable grown in Canada (after GM sweet corn).
Bayer told CBAN that two of the GM greens (Brassica juncea) varieties were in grower trials in the US in 2024 and that growers could start sending produce to US grocery stores soon. Bayer says that these GM greens could reach the Canadian market through these growers, or from Canadian growers, “in the near future”.
The GM greens will likely be marketed as salad greens that are more nutritious than lettuce. The spicy mustard flavour was removed from the greens so they could be advertised as “leafy greens that don’t bite back! (a mustard green that eats like a lettuce).”
These GM greens could be on the market as “mixed leaves, bunched, baby and teen leaf.” They will likely be grown and sold by a few large greens producers under new branding in the US and Canada. Bayer also says they are seeking a major home garden supplier to sell GM seeds to home gardeners and market gardeners. It is unlikely that companies will voluntarily label them as genetically engineered.
Background
Bayer (formerly Monsanto) is licensing the gene editing technology from the US biotechnology company Pairwise.
These genetically modified greens were already briefly sold in 2023 in the United States by Pairwise but were later removed from the market. In May 2023, Pairwise launched these GM greens in the US under their brand “Conscious Greens,” in partnership with foodservice distribution company Performance Food Group’s Peak Fresh Produce® brand. The GM “Conscious Greens” came in two baby-green varieties, marketed in individual 5 oz. bags, called “Purple Power” and “Green Zing.”
Pairwise, the company that developed the GM greens, was founded in 2017 “to lead the way to better health for people and the planet through the power of genome editing.” Pairwise has developed gene editing technology (CRISPR) (their “Fulcrum Platform”) that it is applying to other fruits and vegetables to attempt to develop, for example, pit-less cherries and seedless blackberries.
Some of Pairwise’s initial funding came from Monsanto, and one of Pairwise’s co-founders, Tom Adams, is now the company’s CEO and was formerly the Vice President of Global Biotechnology at Monsanto. Another co-founder, Haven Baker, was formerly the Senior Vice President / General Manager of Simplot, where he led the development of the non-browning GM potato.
Bayer is the largest seed company in the world. When Bayer bought Monsanto in 2018, Monsanto was the world’s largest seed and biotechnology company and Bayer was the world’s second-largest agrochemical company – Bayer now accounts 23% of the commercial seed market and 16% of the agrochemical market. 2024 Report: Bayer’s Toxic Trails: Market power, monopolies, and the global lobbying of an agrochemical giant, from Corporate Observatory Europe.
No Government Safety Assessments
These genetically modified greens will enter the market without any government safety assessments.
These mustard greens were genetically engineered using the gene editing technique of CRISPR. The resulting GMO has no foreign DNA remaining in it. Because there is no remaining DNA from any other species in this GMO, it is exempt from government regulation.
The lack of government regulation means:
- There will be no government safety assessment before the greens are sold for human consumption.
- There will be not government assessment of the environmental risks of releasing these GM seeds.
- These greens will not be listed as approved GMOs on the government’s website.
The federal government of Canada recently removed regulation from many gene-edited foods and seeds, and livestock feed. Health Canada announced (May 18, 2022) that it will allow companies to sell many gene-edited foods without any government safety checks and the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food announced (May 3, 2023) that biotech companies can sell some gene-edited seeds without government assessments. Companies can now also sell these genetically engineered seeds, foods, and feed without telling the government about them. These regulatory exemptions apply to products from many gene-edited plants that have no foreign DNA (there is no DNA from other species incorporated). Click here for more information on the government’s decision to remove regulation.
Gene editing is a set of new genetic engineering techniques that can make changes to the genome (DNA) of an organism, without having to permanently incorporate DNA from other species. Click here for more information on gene editing.
