Europe
Europe’s current GM crop rules only ‘partially applicable’ to CRISPR plants, EU Food Safety Authority finds
The European Commission requested the EFSA Panel on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) to assess whether section 4 (hazard identification) and ...
Push to reform EU biotech crop rules gains strength as some environmentalists, public officials endorse gene editing
After two decades as "the center" of GMO skepticism, it seems the EU may be ready to acknowledge the benefits ...
Viewpoint: How postmodernism birthed Europe’s anti-GMO movement
Tounderstand why Europe is restricting the use of some technologies, while the United States are not following the same path ...
Europe’s biodiversity faces grave threats, while pro-organic farm policies offer inadequate solutions
The European Environment Agency (EEA) released its “State of Nature in the EU” report [October 19], revealing that wildlife species and natural ...
EU opposition to GM crops encourages hunger in developing nations, US trade official warns
A senior U.S. official blasted EU plans for greener farming on [October 27], accusing Brussels of risking worldwide starvation by ...
Plant-based meats can be labeled ‘burgers’ in Europe, encouraging consumers to eat fewer animal products
Veggie burger enthusiasts can rejoice after the European Parliament on [October 23] rejected a measure to ban use of the ...
Engineering soil bacteria could help develop enhanced, ‘non-GMO’ crops for Europe
Plant breeding – a method of selecting plants from a group that have the desired properties – is central to ...
Viewpoint: Rush to develop COVID vaccine highlights failure of Europe’s GM crop regulations
In a recent article of mine published in the journal, Global Food Security, I highlight the EU’s reluctance to move ...
EU agriculture ministers back pro-organic Farm 2 Fork plan, but support gene editing to boost sustainable food production
The EU should make use of innovative breeding technologies to boost sustainability of food production, agriculture ministers agreed on [October ...
EU’s only cultivated GM crop, insect-resistant Bt corn, poses no risk to humans or the environment, study finds
Following a request from the European Commission, the EFSA assessed the 2018 post‐market environmental monitoring (PMEM) report on the cultivation ...
Post-Brexit UK likely to back crop gene editing, but won’t abandon EU’s strict GMO rules
Moves to facilitate the development of gene editing once the UK is free from EU regulation at the end of ...
European countries can ban pesticides even if approved by EU, continent’s highest court rules
Europe’s highest court [European Court of Justice, ECJ] has concluded that member states have the right to ban pesticides even ...
Viewpoint: Greenpeace-funded study backfires, undermining case to treat gene-edited crops as GMOs
The anti-GMO movement dominated the public discourse about crop biotechnology for decades. Led by committed activists who knew how to ...
Europe’s pro-organic ‘green deal’ threatens US farmers who sustainably grow GM crops, USDA claims
Washington could complain to the World Trade Organization if the European Union goes ahead with a farming strategy that it ...
Viewpoint: CRISPR pioneers awarded Nobel Prize. Will EU embrace the technology to boost food production?
CRISPR-Cas, the technique with which DNA in cells can be cut with ‘genetic scissors,’ has been awarded the Nobel Prize ...
Viewpoint: EU approves new herbicide resistant GMO soy for human and feed consumption, but won’t allow its farmers to grow it
[EU regulators recently] approved Bayer’s new XtendFlex soybeans for food and animal-feed use. Bayer’s latest GMO is resistant to three ...
Europe approves imports of new GM herbicide-resistant soy, despite objections from Green Party, organic advocates
The genetically modified (GM) soybean, the XtendFlex, was approved after a comprehensive authorization procedure, including a scientific assessment by the ...
Top EU farm officials back gene editing, call for efforts to assuage concern about ‘unintended impacts’
The European Commission’s top agriculture civil servant said [October 1] he supports controversial gene-editing technologies, but called for more “assurances” ...
Neonicotinoid insecticide ban, dry weather threaten Europe’s ‘fragile’ sugar industry
The European Union is heading for a significant drop in sugar output this year after fields were devastated by pests ...
Viewpoint: Global food security threatened by Europe’s anti-GMO ‘food bullying’
The Farm to Fork program in Europe is designed to regulate food production in the E.U. as well as promote ...
Viewpoint: Food safety could be jeopardized in the EU if fungicides that kill cancer-causing toxins are banned
There are many countries that some Europeans will never visit, yet they eat food from these places every day. –For ...
Bayer, BASF, Corteva pledge $16.5 billion to help EU farmers cut pesticide use
Crop protection companies active in the European Union, including including BASF SE, Bayer AG, have pledged to spend $16.5 billion ...
Viewpoint: UN’s ‘hand-in-glove’ alliance with anti-pesticide groups cripples response to Africa’s ravenous locust swarms
In a year devastated by locust plagues, the COVID-19 pandemic, and massive flooding that displaced over a hundred thousand people ...
‘Ecocide’? Green groups blast France for lifting neonicotinoid pesticide ban to save sugar-beet growers
France has moved to reverse a ban on a class of pesticides only weeks after it came into force, reigniting ...
Viewpoint: US farm productivity shows Europe why rejecting biotech crops was a mistake
Over the past two decades, Europe has decided to go its own way in agricultural policy. While both North and ...
Viewpoint: Farm to Fork failure—How Europe’s ‘obsession’ with organics undermines the global sustainable farming movement
Europe’s quest to confront climate change and achieve carbon neutrality is being undermined by “Big Ag”? That’s not my claim. It’s the ...
‘Steadily increasing’ GMO acceptance in Europe fuels efforts to revise biotech restrictions
Since 1996 till 2018, the global area cultivated with GM crops has increased 113-fold, making biotech crops one of the ...
EU blocks Austria’s planned glyphosate ban, rejecting claim that weedkiller harms human health
The European Commission has blocked Austria from implementing a planned ban on the controversial weedkiller glyphosate, a document seen by ...
