From lab to fork without anyone’s knowledge
New GMOs
The European Parliament has given the green light to a new generation of GMOs. These plants are developed through new genomic techniques (NGTs) and are genetically modified without introducing DNA from other species, unlike first-generation GMOs created through transgenesis.
The Greens/EFA strongly oppose the deregulation of NGTs. This decision will hand even more power over our food system to a small number of agrochemical multinationals that will hold the patents, while weakening farmers’ autonomy and Europe’s food sovereignty. Furthermore, this decision violates the precautionary principle.
MEP Thomas WAITZ, Greens/EFA member of the Committee on Agricultural and rural development, comments:
“New genomic techniques, old greed. The complete deregulation of new genomic techniques will generate huge profits for mega-corporations while costing consumers transparency and farmers sovereignty. It will open the floodgates to patented seeds resulting in big legal problems for small- and medium scale farmers and independent seed breeders. In a few years, our food supply could be entirely controlled by a handful of multinationals. We fought for farmers. The conservatives fought for multinationals Bayer-Monsanto, Corteva and Syngenta.”
MEP Cristina GUARDA, Greens/EFA member of the Committee on Agricultural and rural development, comments:
“With this agreement, born out of the trilogue negotiations and pushed through by the right-wing parties, the European Parliament has yielded to lobbying interests, abandoning its historic mandates and creating an intolerable legal paradox. On the one hand, these new plants (NGTs) are deemed equivalent to conventional varieties in order to bypass the necessary health and environmental safeguards. On the other hand, seed giants are allowed to patent them as industrial inventions.
“This deregulation weakens safety standards, transparency and consumers’ right to know what is in their food. It also places organic and non-GM producers at a clear disadvantage, as they will no longer be able to guarantee GMO-free products.
“We cannot accept that the precautionary principle be replaced by industrial profit. This is not about being for or against research. The real question is simple: do we want farmers to reduce costs of production, to be autonomous, to remain free or not?”
