The war in Ukraine is forcing us to rethink many of the consensuses established within European progressivism. Specifically, the war has changed the discourse on thorny issues such as defense budgets, nuclear energy, the importance of natural gas , as well as a stable and diversified supply of raw materials. In this sense, the genetically modified food industry has also experienced a major script twist.
In this regard, on March 31, the European Commission made a parenthesis in its strong position on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) by authorizing the import of transgenic soybean crops GMB151 , rapeseed 73496 and cotton GHB811 . Shortly after, on May 19, Brussels once again surprised with a new approval of GMOs for their commercialization in European territory, after the favorable opinion of the European Food Safety Agency. Specifically, the Commission gave the green light to a type of transgenic corn and another type of soybean.
These authorizations, motivated by the need to ensure the food supply, are valid for a period of 10 years and do not allow cultivation on community soil, but only the importation and marketing of said foodstuffs in Europe, both for use in the food sector and for animal feed. In this regard, it is difficult not to find similarities between this restriction and others in force in areas such as energy, when, for example, we buy natural gas extracted through fracking from the United States while we prohibit the same technology within our borders.
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[Editor’s note: This article has been translated from Spanish and edited for clarity]
