At a time when we should be focussed on building a robust agriculture system that can cope with global climate changes, we …. insist that farmers work with one hand tied behind their back.
Just last month, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that a novel plant breeding method known as CRISPR/Cas should be regulated in the same way as ‘traditional’ genetically modified (GM) crops.
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The regulations that govern the use of GM technology at [the] EU level have served only to halt research and development on GM in Europe with no credible scientific evidence for such a go-slow.
Now, some would seek to use the same restrictive regulations to halt this new technology.
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We also note the Irish government’s recent decision to prohibit the cultivation of genetically modified crops in Ireland. As the rubber-stamping of an EU directive, this was heralded as “copper-fastening” Ireland’s GM cultivation-free status.
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[C]ultivating GM crops …. has reduced pesticide application in agriculture by 6191 million kg worldwide for the first 20 years of their use (1996-2015). The technology has also reduced greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture equivalent to taking 11.9 million cars off the roads.A report on 18 June highlighted how Ireland is ranked “second worst in EU for tackling climate change” and will not meet EU 2020 commitments ….
Read full, original article: ‘Ireland’s decision to prohibit GM crops doesn’t make sense’
