Every year, the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA), which is partly funded by the biotech industry, publishes figures on the cultivation of genetically modified (GM) crops around the world. This annual review is never short on hyperbole and focuses almost exclusively on what it considers to be the successful expansion of GM crops. Every year, Friends of the Earth International publishes a fully referenced report analyzing the area of GM crops in the world, and providing evidence on their impacts in the countries that have planted them. This year’s ‘Who Benefits from GM Crops’ report shows that there is significant and growing opposition to GM crops in many parts of the world, with people and governments remaining extremely cautious about the adoption of GM crops due to escalating public concern about their socio-economic, environmental and health impacts. This is particularly the case in Europe, Africa, and, most recently, India, which placed a moratorium on planting of its first GM food crop due to widespread concerns about its health, environmental and socio-economic impacts. Developments in the EU are particularly illustrative. 2009 was the fifth year in a row that fewer GM crops have been planted in the EU: the number planted decreased by more than 10%. Significantly, Europe’s largest country and agricultural heavyweight, Germany, banned GM maize MON 810, the only GM crop authorized for cultivation in Europe, taking the number of countries in Europe with provisional bans on MON810 to six. This report examines the promises of the biotech industry, including recent claims of the role of GM crops in tackling climate change, and finds these claims are exaggerated and premature. On the contrary, GM crops as part of the industrial model of agriculture could increase emissions(see below). GM crops are also not feeding the world. They remain confined to about 2.6% of agricultural land worldwide, and 99% are grown for animal feed and fuels rather than for food crops. The US, Argentina, Brazil, India, Canada and China grew over 94% of GM crops in 2008, with the first three accounting for 79% of the total. The remaining 19 countries that ISAAA listed as growing some GM crops in 2008 grew just 6.7 million ha between them – equivalent to 11% of the US’s crop (ISAAA 2008).