Brazil authorizes Cultivation of GM Wheat

In early March CTNBio, Brazil’s scientific agency responsible for the authorization of GMOs for cultivation and imports, approved the cultivation of a drought-tolerant GM wheat event (HB4). Brazil has become the second country (after Argentina) to approve the crop, developed by Bioceres, a biotech development company from Argentina. In November 2021 Brazil had already approved the importation flour processed from HB4 wheat. Last year a survey of Brazilian consumers showed that 70 % would consume GM wheat. This Brazilian article provides more details. During the same meeting on March 2, CTNBio also determined that two new soybean events, who were developed by Brazil’s public agricultural research organization (EMBRAPA) were the result of gene editing techology and therefore would not be subject to the country’s GMO approval process.