04/October/21

 

The European Commission is asking for your opinion on new GMOs produced with gene editing techniques like CRISPR. We've told them to apply existing GMO regulations to all GMOs and to stop trying to sneak GM food onto our fields and plates untested and unlabelled. Send your own message to the Commission here. It's quick and easy and you can participate wherever you are in the world (non-EU citizens should choose "Other" for their country). GMWatch

 

 

The Westminster government's proposal to deregulate gene editing has come in for fierce criticism from campaigners, who pointed out that the government’s response showed most individuals (87%) and businesses (64%) felt that gene-edited organisms pose a greater risk than naturally bred organisms. It also showed that most individuals (88%) and businesses (64%) supported regulating gene-edited products as GMOs. “That the government ignores this weight of public opinion is a slap in the face for democracy,” UK campaign organisation GMWatch wrote. How the wider British public will receive the move and how this decision will impact the UK’s relationship with the EU remains to be seen. But the EU executive is currently reconsidering the framework on new GM techniques. EURACTIV.com

 

 

Last week George Eustice, the Environment Secretary, revealed plans to stop people objecting to field trials of experimental genetically engineered crops. Yet the results of the public consultation showed that the public – and businesses – had roundly rejected Eustice’s plans for dismantling GM safeguards. Liz O'Neill of GM Freeze raises serious unanswered questions about the government's actions. Reaction

 

 

Although Boris Johnson has pledged to “liberate” the UK from “anti-GM rules” by ditching the European Union’s precautionary stance, the deregulatory moves his government has just announced on gene-edited crops apply to England alone. And in response to the Westminster government’s new policy announcement, Scotland and Wales have made it clear that they have no intention of following England’s unilateral move to deregulate the gene editing of crop plants. Given Northern Ireland has effectively remained within the EU's single market for goods, it’s almost impossible to see how it could follow England’s unilateral move either. GMWatch comment on articles in The Scotsman and BBC News

 

 

The Swiss National Council (lower house of the Swiss Federal Assembly, the parliament of Switzerland) has extended the moratorium on the cultivation of genetically modified plants in agriculture by another four years until the end of 2025. Gene-edited GM plants were explicitly included in the moratorium. Applications from some members of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and Green Liberal Party (GLP) to exempt gene editing technologies from the moratorium were rejected. GMWatch