An article for the highly regarded Argentine publication Economía Sustentable reveals the extent of the failure of the GM wheat HB4. HB4 was marketed as drought-tolerant but is also tolerant to glufosinate, a herbicide that is so toxic to reproduction that it is banned outright in the European Union and the United Kingdom, and heavily discouraged or restricted in several other regions.
The author, Karina Ocampo, begins her article by noting that on 11 June, Professor Raquel Lia Chan received the 2026 L’Oréal-UNESCO International Award for Women in Science in Paris “for transforming fundamental plant biology into agricultural innovation through her discovery of genes and biological mechanisms that enhance plants’ tolerance to environmental changes”.
Chan is a researcher and lecturer at the National University of the Littoral (UNL) and director of the Littoral Institute of Agrobiotechnology (CONICET-UNL), in Argentina. Her research has focused on the development of supposedly drought-resistant varieties of GM wheat, maize, rice and soy, of which the soy and wheat have been commercialised by the company Bioceres. The award has reignited debate over one of her flagship developments, to which she has devoted years of her work: HB4 wheat, which has been criticised both in academic circles and by environmental and agricultural groups not only for its tolerance to glufosinate, but also for putting conventional wheat at risk through cross-contamination.
