{"id":2957,"date":"2023-07-06T12:29:01","date_gmt":"2023-07-06T11:29:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/farmingfuturefood.com\/feb2025\/?p=2957"},"modified":"2023-07-16T13:51:55","modified_gmt":"2023-07-16T12:51:55","slug":"european-commission-seeks-to-relax-gm-crop-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/farmingfuturefood.com\/feb2025\/european-commission-seeks-to-relax-gm-crop-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"European Commission seeks to relax GM crop rules"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The European Commission has proposed changing its rules on genetically modified organisms (GMOs), potentially paving the way for farmers across Europe to grow crops resulting from newer gene-editing technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Commission decided its rules needed changing after a 2021 review concluded that existing regulation, which says genome-edited techniques should be governed by GMO rules, was not fit for purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its new draft<\/a> (published 5 July), the commission suggested loosening some restrictions by splitting plants grown with new genomic techniques (NGT) – such as CRISPR-Cas9, which targets genes without necessarily introducing genetic material from outside the plant\u2019s gene pool – into two categories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first covers those that could be created via conventional breeding, or grown naturally. Crops in this category would be treated similarly to conventionally-bred plants, and food produced with them wouldn\u2019t need to be labelled as GMO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second group would consist of NGT plants with more complex modifications. These would be subject to more rigorous risk assessments, in line with the EU\u2019s GMO directive<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plants in this category would benefit from faster approvals if they are more tolerant to drought, extreme heat, or have lower fertilizer requirements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Commission said the rule changes would allow farmers to select from a wider range of plants that can tolerate climate change and attacks from pests, as well as varieties that offer increased yields and reduced need for fertilizer and pesticides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IFOAM Organics Europe<\/a> said the proposals were a \u201cdistraction\u201d from the agroecological solutions Europe needed to make agriculture more sustainable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amongst its concerns, it said the rule change did not provide a clear basis to protect GMO-free and organic production with co-existence measures, nor ensure a fair distribution of risks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The proposed changes will need to go in front of the European Parliament and EU governments before they take effect. They could also face further modifications before they are passed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Europe’s farmers could find it easier to grow crops produced with gene-editing technology thanks to a proposed rule change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2661,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[50,198,303,93,398,402,397,43,87,399,400,143,396],"other-categories":[218],"class_list":["post-2957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arable-genetics","tag-agriculture","tag-arable","tag-crispr-cas9","tag-crops","tag-europe","tag-european-agriculture","tag-european-commission","tag-farming","tag-genetics","tag-gm","tag-gm-crops","tag-gmo","tag-regulation","other-categories-editors-pick"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/farmingfuturefood.com\/feb2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/farmingfuturefood.com\/feb2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/farmingfuturefood.com\/feb2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farmingfuturefood.com\/feb2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farmingfuturefood.com\/feb2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2957"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/farmingfuturefood.com\/feb2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2983,"href":"https:\/\/farmingfuturefood.com\/feb2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2957\/revisions\/2983"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farmingfuturefood.com\/feb2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/farmingfuturefood.com\/feb2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farmingfuturefood.com\/feb2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farmingfuturefood.com\/feb2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2957"},{"taxonomy":"other-categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farmingfuturefood.com\/feb2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/other-categories?post=2957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}