Precision Bred GMO Field Trial Tracker

The UK government has opened the door to a new wave of open-air trials of genetically modified crops — now rebranded as “precision bred organisms” (PBOs). These trials are happening across England, in fields belonging to universities, research institutes, commercial farms and private companies.

Beyond GM is tracking these releases because the information made public by the government is minimal and often hard to find. The official government web page for Genetically Modified Organisms: Applications, Decisions and Notifications lists only brief descriptions of precision bred trials, with no accessible details about who is conducting the tests or where they are located and no simple explanations of what is being tested. Many of these trials are for genetically modified lines which have already been tested and failed; as one trial ends, another cycle begins, all at the taxpayers’ expense. There is no assessment of potential environmental risk, no long-term record of what happens to the crops after the trial and no clear way for farmers, beekeepers or nearby residents to track what experiments are happening near them.

What is clear is that the working estimate of 1-2 trials per year made by the government when the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act 2023 was passed have been quickly exceeded. In just two years with the passage of the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Regulations 2025, these figures were revised to 18 trials per year by the end of 2035. But we are already well on the way to meeting or even exceeding that prediction by the end of 2025.

This isn’t just nerdy number crunching. These trials are paid for with taxpayers’ money – the same taxpayers who have consistently demanded greater transparency on all GMOs, including precision bred GMOs. As the numbers increase and as more trials are used for non-research purposes – such as demonstration (advertisement) fields and seed multiplication – so does the risk of inadvertent contamination of non-GM and organic crops and the food supply chain.

We believe that openness and accountability are the foundation of public trust in any new genetic technology. This page brings together what is known about current and past GM-PBO field trials in England, with plain English descriptions of the trials and links to the original Defra documents. Our aim is to maintain a current, easy to understand list and, over time, expand it with background information and updates on ‘precision bred’ GMO varieties and products to help make sense of how the new regulations are unfolding in practice.