‘We can’t rule out new solutions’: German Greens poised to reconsider skepticism of crop biotechnology?

[T]he world is looking to research laboratories like Mainz, Cambridge and other cities, where vaccines are being developed these days that could possibly herald the end of the pandemic. The reason for cautious hope is because science, technology and research are performing like never before. We as a society can and should build on this.

[Editor’s note: Robert Habeck is federal chairman of BÜNDNIS 90/DIE GRÜNEN. Kai Gehring is a member of the Bundestag and spokesman for research, science and universities.]

[W]e have reached a point where the major crises, especially the ecological crises, have intensified so much that we cannot rule out new solutions in principle and from the outset.

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Innovations in agriculture enable – despite all the setbacks – a world without hunger …. And while the application of conventional genetic engineering has created new problems in agriculture, its help has made advances in medicine and biotechnological applications.

The following principles apply to new genetic engineering processes: be open to research, but be careful when using them; the approval procedures must be strict, the precautionary principle must be observed and risk assessments must be carried out.

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Given the challenges ahead, there is nothing we should rashly reject. Rather, it is a matter of weighing up potentials and dangers and deciding democratically about deployment. But not guided by fear, but by facts, values ​​and confidence.

[Editor’s note: This article was originally published in German and has been translated and edited for clarity.]

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