Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue redoubles effort to promote gene editing, risk-based regulations

The USDA plans to double down efforts to work with partners globally towards science-based regulatory approaches. U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue issued the following statement regarding [the] European Court of Justice (ECJ)[July 25] ruling on newer mutagenesis methods, otherwise known as genome editing.

Government policies should encourage scientific innovation without creating unnecessary barriers…Unfortunately, [July 25th’s] ECJ ruling is a setback in this regard in that it narrowly considers newer genome editing methods to be within the scope of the European Union’s regressive and outdated regulations governing [GMOs].

We encourage the European Union to seek input from the scientific and agricultural communities, as well as its trading partners, in determining the appropriate implementation of the ruling.

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“The global regulatory treatment of genome-edited agricultural products has strategic innovation and trade implications for U.S. agriculture…In light of the ECJ ruling, USDA will re-double its efforts to work with partners globally towards science- and risk-based regulatory approaches.”

Read full, original article: USDA to re-double efforts following EJC ruling on gene editing