Plant breeding innovations need to be treated differently to GMOs in order to leverage their potential to contribute to sustainability goals, said FEDIOL [the EU vegetable oil and protein meal industry association] in a vision document for the EU agri-sector released [June 10] ….
Representing the EU vegetable oil and protein meal industry, the trade group said [digitization], precision farming, and plant breeding innovation are essential to the development of smart agriculture and sustainable intensification of production.
However, FEDIOL reckons the EU’s GMO directive is no longer fit for purpose, adding that it believes that plants obtained with new breeding methods should not be considered GMOs when they could also have been obtained through earlier breeding methods or resulted from spontaneous processes in nature.
Indeed, it was one of 26 European organizations that send an open letter to Member States last month expressing their concern over the EU Court of Justice ruling that crops resulting from innovative, targeted mutagenesis methods should be regulated under the provisions of the EU’s GMO Directive.
Read full, original article: ‘New plant breeding methods should not be considered GMOs’
