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In times of war, market concentration allows companies to reap even greater profits, while farmers and consumers around the world suffer from rising fertilizer and food prices. This report provides a snapshot of the state of concentration in the agri-food sector. It follows up on the 2025 edition and assesses the state of market concentration in six key agricultural sectors: commercial seeds, pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, agricultural machinery, veterinary pharmaceuticals, and livestock genetics.

In an opinion piece published on 22 July 2026 on a French media’s website Mediapart, sixteen representatives of French organisations have expressed alarm at the potential deregulation of genetically modified micro-organisms. This deregulation, proposed by the European Commission in December 2025, has already received initial approval from the Council of the European Union, including that of the French government. In their opinion piece, the signatories specifically call on the French government “to make a genuine change in stance and to take a firm stand against this deregulation of GMOs”.

According to the European Commission, biocontrol products are intended to be a sustainable alternative to chemical pesticides. However, as we saw in a previous article, the Commission plans to group products that are genuinely low-risk together with products derived from biotechnologies – whose risks have not been assessed – under the single term “biocontrol”. Yet, the term “biocontrol” creates confusion by fostering the illusion that it is a technique akin to organic farming. What is the reality?

The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), which certifies “sustainably” managed forests, held a public consultation on the interpretation of its definition of “genetically modified organism” (GMO)i – a definition adopted in 2000 and copied verbatim from the European definition in force since 1990. Currently, GMO tree plantations cannot obtain FSC certification. The consultation revealed conflicting views among the stakeholders (both members and non-members) who participated. However, among FSC members specifically, a narrow majority of respondents favored classifying trees derived from New Genomic Techniques (NGTs) as GMOs. Consequently, the FSC secretariat decided to keep trees genetically modified using NGTs within the GMO category, thereby maintaining the ban on their use in certified plantations.

In June, the European Parliament adopted a regulation on new genetic modification techniques (NGTs). Contrary to the demands of several civil society organisations – notably farmers’ groups, but also MEPs – the text does not ban patents on products derived from these NGTs. However, experience in the US shows that the strengthening of intellectual property rights over seeds has been accompanied by a general rise in their prices – particularly those of genetically modified seeds – and by increased concentration within the sector. This trend could also occur in Europe and, in the long term, have an impact on food prices.

The adoption of the future European regulation on plant reproductive material, known as the ‘seeds regulation’, has entered its final stages. The ‘provisional compromise’ is presented as a modernisation of the current legislation. Among other things, it extends the market for conservation varieties across the entire European Union and regulates the non-commercial exchange of seeds between farmers. However, this compromise has not achieved consensus. Whilst the peasant farmers’ organisation ECVC is calling for its rejection, organisations defending cultivated biodiversity welcome some of the progress made. The seed industry and the mainstream agricultural unions, for their part, welcome a framework that reinforces the current market organisation.

Two economics researchers from Peking University, Kaixing Huang and Yaxuan You, have published a paper comparing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions between countries that have grown genetically modified (GM) crops and those that have not. Their conclusion is unequivocal. They assert that genetically modified maize, soya, cotton and rapeseed increase greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture. However, this study has significant limitations: based on international statistics, it adopts an ‘accounting’ approach and does not challenge either globalised agriculture or genetically modified crops. Inf’OGM has nevertheless chosen to analyse it, as the subject is poorly documented and the study helps to shed light on its complexity. This article is intended as a contribution to the dossier on the impact of GMOs on the climate and, more specifically, on GHG emissions.

Molecular agriculture is an idea as old as transgenesis. Attempts to have tobacco, rice, or corn produce therapeutic molecules have been made many times, but the results have been few and inconclusive. A French startup, Plantibodies, is proposing a new approach: instead of extracting the target molecule from the plant, the idea is to grind the spinach leaves that contain it into a powder.

Since 2022, the German seed company KWS has been developing a range of patent licences covering “native traits”. Presented as a means of “promoting innovation in plant breeding”, this strategy illustrates how patents can be used to control the use of these “native traits”, even though they are already present in biodiversity. This approach by the German seed company, which is also known for its aggressive policy of defending its intellectual property, also highlights the current limitations of European patent law.