News

2023-08-31 | permalink

New genetic engineering: EU Commission proposal for new regulation endangers nature, the environment and our future livelihoods

In July 2023, the EU Commission presented a proposal for the future regulation of plants whose genome has been altered with new genomic techniques (NGTs), e. g. with CRISPR/Cas gene scissors. The Commission appears intent on abandoning the basic principle of current EU legislation, i. e. that all organisms obtained through genetic engineering processes must undergo risk assessment. The EU commission proposal suggests creating a new ‘Category 1’ for the majority of NGT plants – these would then only need to be registered but not undergo in-depth risk assessment. In legal terms, the NGT plants of Category 1 would then be equal to conventionallybred plants, i. e. deregulated, even if they are biologically different. Under the new regulatory framework, neither the intended traits of the NGT plants nor the unintended genetic changes brought about by NGT processes would need to undergo risk assessment. The Commission also proposes abandoning its previous requirements in regard to methods of detection and labelling.

Testbiotech: New genetic engineering: EU Commission proposal for new regulation endangers nature, the environment and our future livelihoods

2023-08-22 | permalink

New GMOs: Old claims and false promises

Briefing paper – Proposal on new genomic techniques

Under the current EU legislative framework, all genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are subject to mandatory risk assessment, traceability, and labelling. These requirements guarantee freedom of choice for farmers, breeders, and consumers, while protecting our environment and health in line with the precautionary principle.

For more than a decade, new GMOs, produced using new GM techniques (also called new genomic techniques, NGTs), were developed. The agricultural biotech industry, as well as seed companies and international trade partners, are pushing to exempt GM products obtained by these techniques from the current GMO regulations. They claim these techniques are the solution to ensure food security and achieve sustainability in food and farming.

Demeter International: New GMOs: Old claims and false promises

2023-07-07 | permalink

New Genetic Engineering – Small Cause, Big Effect

The EU Commission is presenting a new narrative about GM, the basic concepts of which were first developed over 20 years ago by scientists at Wageningen University

Here's an excellent article about the European Commission's GMO deregulation proposal, by the journalist, former MEP, and expert on GMOs Benedikt Haerlin. He has been around long enough to have witnessed the failed promises of the first generation of GM crops in the 1990s and early 2000s.