Europe
Anti-biotech groups call for EU-wide ban on disease-fighting gene drives, defying scientists’ recommendations
[Editor's note: More than 78 European environmental and agricultural organizations have signed a letter calling for a moratorium on gene ...
GM insect-resistant, herbicide-tolerant corn poses no health risk, EU food safety officials say
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) Panel on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO Panel) has published the Scientific Opinion which reports ...
Farm to Fork tempest: EU defends plan to make 25 percent of agriculture organic, ignoring farmer skepticism
[Editor's note: EU farmers are skeptical of a new government initiative to make 25 percent of Europe's farmland organic by ...
European Greens rebuff pro-CRISPR party faction, allege gene-edited crops ‘doomed to fail’
Martin Häusling, spokesman for agricultural policy of the Greens / EFA in the European Parliament, and Harald Ebner, spokesman for ...
Illegal to eat ice cream on a cone? Bring your own cutlery to barbecues; No more locally-sourced olive oil in bottles, just plastic pouches: Europe’s ‘baffling’ COVID-19 regulations
Europe is lifting its lockdowns, but the new rules to battle the coronavirus are baffling Europeans as the continent goes ...
Before restricting Roundup weedkiller, EU lawmakers want to know how it could affect farmers
Any potential reduction of glyphosate in the EU should be preceded by an impact assessment exploring the consequence for farmers, ...
GMO high oleic acid soy doesn’t raise health or environmental concerns, EU Food Safety Authority finds
Following the submission .... from Monsanto Company (hereafter referred to as ‘the applicant’), the Panel on Genetically Modified Organisms of ...
Neonicotinoid insecticide ban, poor weather cut EU canola harvest area to 13-year low, USDA finds
Rapeseed production in the European Union (EU27 + UK) for 2020/21 is forecast at 17.0 million metric tons (mmt), 0.2 ...
EU GMO approval process hinders biotech crop development with no scientific justification, researchers argue
The approach to equivalence testing required by the [European Food Safety Authority, EFSA] creates unwarranted barriers to the introduction of ...
Cross-party proposal aims ‘to liberate’ UK biotech sector from EU agricultural gene-editing rules
A cross-party group of MPs and Lords have called for .... ditching EU rules which block the access to precision ...
EU ‘farm-to-fork’ proposal opens door to gene editing, drawing fire from anti-GMO groups
The European Commission has set targets to reduce pesticide use and sales of antimicrobials by 2030. The Farm to Fork ...
GMO herbicide-tolerant canola poses little risk to human health, EU Food Safety Authority finds
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) Panel on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO Panel) has published the Scientific Opinion on the ...
Plants obtained from conventional breeding can’t be patented, European patent court rules
The highest judicial authority at the [European Patent Office] EPO issued their opinion .... in the controversial G3/19 (Pepper) case ...
Europe streamlined approval process to weeks to fight COVID-19 pandemic. Why does it take more than a decade to get a GMO safety review?
At the start of the pandemic, China built a hospital in double-quick time and we all thought, “that’s why they ...
Should Europe regulate disease-fighting gene drive organisms as GMOs?
Within the last decades, new genetic engineering tools for manipulating genetic material in plants, animals and microorganisms are getting large ...
EU Food Safety Authority defends pesticide risk studies activists call ‘unfit for purpose’
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has published the results of its two pilot assessments on the risks posed to ...
Viewpoint: EU opposition to CRISPR crops threatens sustainable farming in developing world
Agricultural economist Dr. Matin Qaim of the University of Göttingen in Germany recommends that regulatory reforms and a more science-based ...
GMO corn cultivation in Europe has no adverse environmental effects, decade-long study confirms
In European regulations for the deliberate release into the environment of genetically modified organisms (GMO), the objective of General Surveillance ...
EU could make 25% of its farmland organic by 2030 to combat biodiversity loss
The EU could set a target of one-quarter of agricultural land in Europe to be farmed organically by 2030, with ...
Viewpoint: COVID-19 food shortages—Why the pandemic is a warning to embrace agricultural technology
The question worth asking is this: will we learn from this trying experience and embrace agricultural technology to build a ...
Cumulative pesticide exposure poses little risk to consumers, EU food safety officials find
Risks to consumers from the presence of pesticide residues in food are currently estimated substance by substance. However, a number ...
Where are GMO crops grown? GLP infographics document the global growth of agricultural biotechnology innovation
One of the more popular claims by critics of GMOs is that only a few countries grow genetically engineered crops, ...
Norwegians see advantages to gene editing food
Norwegian consumers are receptive to using gene editing tools in agriculture if they bring social, economic and environmental benefits, a ...
95.5% of Europe’s produce below legal pesticide limits, posing little risk to consumers, food safety officials say
EFSA has published its annual report on pesticide residues found in food in the European Union. The report is based ...
Viewpoint: Bees and pesticides—Europe’s precautionary rules neglect science, hinder sustainable farming
A core element of EU environmental law is the precautionary principle (PP), which theoretically requires regulators to err on the ...
Viewpoint: Activist campaign against synthetic pesticides, fertilizers and GMOs a pending ‘disaster’ for our food supply
‘Farming looks mighty easy when your plough is a pencil, and you’re a thousand miles from the cornfield.’ Those were ...
Europe fears empty grocery stores amid coronavirus outbreak, but food companies say there’s plenty to go around
Naked supermarket shelves and masked shoppers hoarding pasta have become the iconic images of the coronavirus crisis so far. But ...
