An agricultural Pandora’s box has been opened, with the European Union’s approval of new rules that deregulate gene-edited-crops.
This week the European Parliament voted to remove the safety checks, traceability and consumer labelling that kept GMOs in check for the last two decades. NGT-1 plants won’t need previously adopted checks, meaning farmers won’t know what they’re growing and consumers won’t know what they’re eating.
The move is being sold as facilitating access to new plants that are climate and pest resistant, with claims fewer pesticides will be required. It’s also being suggested higher yields will come from this. One organisation – Navdanya International – has slammed the vote as an assault on seeds, biodiversity and food democracy. They argue the “sustainability” framing locks farmers into dependency on a small handful of corporations.
The shift now means that plants will be regulated on what they look like, not how they were made.
Copa-Cogeca, a farming lobby group that often sides with pesticide giants and multinational food conglomerates, has characteristically supported the news calling it a “landmark decision that opens the door to the next generation of crop varieties for European agriculture”.
Mute Schimpf from Friends of the Earth Europe called the vote “a blow to food and environmental safety” that “endorses a path that leaves nature, the food sector, and farmers vulnerable while bolstering profits and unchecked power for big corporations”.
The move further illustrates the opportunity that exists for New Zealand to keep its GE free status, which would elevate our premium agricultural exports and offer a significant market advantage.
RCR has covered New Zealand’s parallel push extensively through its Say No To Gene Tech campaign. The stalled Gene Technology Bill is still before a Health Select Committee, but the Government is also rushing the HSNO Amendment Bill and ACVM Amendment Bill to deliver similar outcomes by stealth. Submissions on all three have now closed. Watch all of our interviews on this topic at www.rcr.media, or read more at Euractiv, Navdanya International, Le Monde and Agrieland.
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