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Two of the greatest challenges of GMO campaigning are engaging the public in a subject that is ‘sciency’ and ‘techy’ and dealing with the long periods between ‘significant’ events when nothing much seems to be happening.
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At the moment the European Commission is considering a list of seven new plant breeding technologies and trying to reach some conclusions about whether or not these can, indeed should, be classified as genetic engineering under existing laws.
Campaigners and many scientists believe that these techniques absolutely are forms of genetic engineering, but biotech companies claim they are not GMOs, as defined by current laws, and should therefore be exempt from any regulations that might apply to older types of GMOs.
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Ahead of the EC’s opinion a coalition of European civil society organisations have published a dossier on the legal status of new methods for the production of genetically engineered plants which argues that the new technologies fulfil all criteria for EU regulation under EU Directive 2001/18.
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According to Christoph Then of Testbiotech, one of the groups behind the report: . . .
“If these new techniques are not regulated, there will be no transparency, no choice for farmers and consumers as well as no possibility of safeguarding human health or protecting the environment as required by EU regulation. So we are urging the Commission to make a clear position statement that these new technologies will not escape EU regulation.”
Read full, original post: GMO or GM-NO – How will the EU regulate new plant breeding technologies?
