Scientists urge EU lawmakers to ease restrictions on gene-edited crops
Scientists from around the world have signed an open letter calling on EU lawmakers to deregulate genetically modified crops bred using new techniques. While supporters say the technology has the potential to make crops more resistant to disease and climate impacts, critics say it poses unknown safety risks.
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Thirty-five Nobel laureates and over 1,000 scientists addressed their letter to members of the European Parliament on Friday in hopes that the lawmakers will hear their case.
With the world grappling with climate crisis, biodiversity loss and renewed food insecurity, they say that time is of the essence.
It comes as the EU debates a proposed law that would loosen the rules on plants produced by certain "new genomic techniques" (NGTs).
Fewer pesticides, less water?
The new techniques are a mix of genomic editing tools that alter a plant's genetic make-up without adding foreign genetic material from another species, unlike the earliest genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
The scientists point out that crops like grapes and potatoes are difficult to breed by conventional means and require pesticides. Using NGTs would reduce dangerous pesticides in agriculture while maintaining yields, they argue.
NGTs could also help "make crop plants resilient to disease by precise and targeted edits to their genetic code", the letter says.
Proponents also claim that seeds produced using gene editing techniques are less vulnerable to drought and require less water.
Environmental concerns
Signatories include leading biologists and geneticists – among them French researcher Emmanuelle Charpentier and American researcher Jennifer Doudna, who jointly won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2020.
They hope the letter will lead to the relaxing of currently strict rules for the use of NGTs.
For the signatories, the price of "saying no to scientific progress" is high. They estimate €300 billion annual losses to the European economy across multiple sectors.
However, many environmental groups oppose efforts to change the genetic code of plants and other organisms, citing safety concerns and unknown risks.
Other opponents claim deregulating gene modification techniques would be a smokescreen to avoid radically rethinking farming techniques in Europe to become more sustainable.
New EU proposals
Scientists have long argued that the EU's blanket restrictions on GMOs lack nuance, failing to reflect the different degrees of genetic modification.
Current EU rules treat all products derived from NGTs as GMOs, making them subject to strict rules on authorisation, labelling and traceability.
In July, the European Commission proposed new regulation that would create two separate categories for NGT products.
The first category, which would cover plants that have undergone relatively minor genetic modifications – such as mutations the equivalent of ones that occur naturally – would be treated as conventional plants, not subject to any extra monitoring.
Only plants that have been modified more extensively – the second category – would have to pass a safety and environmental risk assessment.
Europe divided
The French government, after some severe drought years, backs changing the rules.
Last April, French Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau expressed his concerns over Europe's "delay", arguing that allowing biotechnology gives Europe tools to deal with climate change by producing more resistant seeds.
Other countries remain wary.
In March, Austria criticised a European Commission study that recommended revising the legislation on NGT products as based on "assumptions" rather than scientific data, and called for a comprehensive analysis of any environmental and health risks.
A majority of EU lawmakers support relaxing the rules.
The European Parliament's biggest political group, the conservative European People's Party (EPP), opposes binding targets to cut pesticides but is pushing for rules on "innovative" technology that would "stimulate research, investment and jobs".
Pascal Canfin, a French centrist MEP and chairman of the parliament's environment committee, said new biotechnology could "be part of the useful solutions for the agricultural transition" if it helps to avoid using chemical pesticides.
But unlike the EPP, he supports a cap on pesticides.
The European parliament's environment committee is set to discuss the issue of regulation next week.
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