In an op-ed published in October, French Agriculture Minister Julien Denormandie said it is now necessary to launch the “third agricultural revolution” based on digital technology, robotics and genetics after the last century brought the widespread use of machinery then agrochemicals.
Varietal innovations would allow us “to overcome technical impasses that we are still too often confronted with” as well as “facilitate the work of our farmers, better preserve our resources, limit carbon emissions while increasing the nutritional quality of our production,” the minister wrote.
“I don’t see the point of depriving ourselves of research tools that are used worldwide,” French Renew MEP Irène Tolleret also told EURACTIV.
But not everyone agrees.
In a joint letter sent to the European Commission in September, dozens of French and European NGOs criticised an approach that was “biased from the start”.
“The Commission puts too much faith in the unverifiable promises of the industry,” according to the letter’s signatories, who also criticised the influence of GMO developers and their lobbying groups on the process initiated by the EU institution.
The Commission is said to be “uncritically following the GMO industry’s ‘wish list’ for deregulation,” they added.
