In what would appear to be good news for anyone opposed to genetically modified (GM) foods, the world's largest chemical company, BASF, announced last week that it was abandoning all attempts to sell its genetically modified crops in Europe, citing continued opposition from the "majority of consumers, farmers and politicians." Because the company is based in Germany, it would appear that the company had been defeated on its own turf. The environmental group Friends of the Earth hailed it as a "nail in the coffin" for genetically modified foods in Europe.

And it may be. But the bad news is that company isn't abandoning GM crops entirely—and BASF is moving its home turf. In order to pursue approval of its GM potatoes, as well as its partnership with Monsanto, the world's largest seed company, the headquarters for the BASF Plant Science division are being relocated from Germany to Raleigh, North Carolina, where the company plans to focus its GM crop sales on North and South America. Europe's "loss" is America's "gain."

In a blog on the website GMWatch.org, Ignacio Chapela, a soil biologist at the University of California, Berkeley, writes, "The reasons for the failure of BASF’s products in Europe are many and very diverse, but the fundamental truth stands that, over the decades, no real benefit has offset the proven harm caused by GMOs…. As we celebrate the lifting of perhaps one third of the pressure upon Europe to give in to GMOs, let’s not forget those places where they will continue to be used as the effective spear-head of corporate biological mining of other lands."

In the U.S., BASF has been working with Monsanto to develop a drought-resistant corn, which was approved by the USDA at the end of 2011. The two companies are currently developing a strain of genetically modified wheat, a crop that has already been so intensively bred through conventional methods that it has lost all nutritional value.

Read More: How You Can Stand Up Against GMOs