Europe’s recent deal to loosen rules on gene-edited crops could be the first crack in the continent’s decades-long resistance to genetically modified organisms (GMOs). At least, that’s the hope, as AgNavigator’s Oliver Morrison reports.
Speaking at a webinar launching a new Bayer-commissioned report on agricultural competitiveness, Matthias Berninger, Bayer’s head of public affairs, argued that broader acceptance will come from results. “I think we need to prove the difference we can make with the new breeding technologies,” he said.
Berninger reached for a historical analogy to describe the EU’s agreement on new genomic techniques (NGTs). “I liken the NGT approval to the Westphalian peace, if you will,” he said, suggesting the compromise could eventually “loosen the access barriers to some of the GMOs.” He also flagged an awkward contradiction: the EU effectively bans GMO cultivation, yet “we are importing GMO feeds because in the feed space GMOs are pretty much standard in the European Union.”
The report, which combines Oxford Economics analysis with consumer polling and farmer interviews across eight European markets, warns that the EU and UK are falling behind the US, Brazil, Canada and China. Between 2011 and 2023, EU crop production grew just 0.1% a year, and UK output was flat, compared with 1% in the US and 3.3% in Brazil.
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The report details the economic benefits of more predictable approvals for gene editing, seed traits, crop protection products and digital tools, including a “fast lane” for innovative products. Over the past seven years, 92 crop protection products or active substances left the market while just one new synthetic product was registered.
Jeremy Leonard, managing director at Oxford Economics, pointed to the surge in productivity in countries that adopted GM crops from the mid-1990s. “There is extremely solid economic evidence on this that these will drive productivity,” he said.
