The demonstration at World Trade Organization meeting in November, 1999 by protesters dressed as beleagured Monarch butterflies and oversized killer corn, by Greenpeace in Europe and by a number of NGOs in countries like India may cause at least a short term harm to the progress of crop biotechnology even if eventually the battle may be won by crop biotechnologists, so that the long-term benefits may reach the farmers and the consumers. Partly the opposition of the transgenic foods by many stems from the fact that the power to produce and derive recognition and commercial benefit is concentrating at a small number of institutions.

An example of illogical opposition of GM crops was the announcement in mid-November 1999 that a paper entitled' 'Cauliflower mosaic viral promoter: a recipe for disaster" was to be published in the next issue of "Microbial Ecology in Health and Disease". The authors of this paper believed that the promoter CaMV35S (present in almost all transgenic crops) can take part in horizontal transfer and recombination causing large scale genomic rearrangements. The authors also implied that the promiscuity of CaMV35S may trigger cancer. In view of this the authors recommended that' 'as a precautionary measure, all transgenic crops containing CaMV35S or similar promoters that, are recombinogenic should be immediately withdrawn from commercial production or open field trials" and that "products from such crops should also be immediately withdrawn from sale and use".