New GMO breeding techniques have potentially “severe” economic and environmental consequences for Europe’s farming sector

The new report from organic industry body IFOAM on new GM plant breeding techniques is available here.

1. Organic farmers heat up debate over new plant breeding techniques
2. The organic sector urges the Commission to classify new genetic engineering techniques as GMOs
—

1. Organic farmers heat up debate over new plant breeding techniques

by Sarantis Michalopoulos
EurActiv.com, 14 Jan 2016
http://www.euractiv.com/sections/agriculture-food/organic-farmers-heat-debate-over-new-plant-breeding-techniques-320945

Organic farmers have raised the alarm over the potential “severe” economic and environmental consequences of new plant breeding techniques for Europe’s farming sector, calling for GMO legislation to apply when approving new seed traits.

In a policy paper due to be published later today (14 January), the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements EU (IFOAM EU) urges the European Commission to classify NPBTs as falling "within the scope of the GMO legislation”.

These new techniques should “be subject to a risk assessment”, and “mandatory traceability and labelling requirements that apply to other GMOs”, according to the policy paper, seen by EurActiv.

The EU executive is expected to rule in the coming monthgs whether they fall withing the scope of GMO legislation or not.

New plant breeding techniques focus on developing new seed traits within a given species through genetic engineering. Backers of the technology say they should not be considered as GMOs because no foreign DNA is present in the resulting plants, which might have developed naturally.

“Unpredictable” side effects

But according to the organic movement, NPBTs use technology that interferes at the sub-cellular and genomic level.

“Therefore, IFOAM EU considers that they are not compatible with the principles of organic farming and must not be used in it.”

The paper continues, saying that GM techniques can lead to “unpredictable side effects”.

“Living genetically modified organisms cannot be recalled once a problem is identified, and their release can lead to negative and irreversible environmental impacts”, organic farmers contend, adding that their use in agriculture could lead to genetic contamination of the gene pool and indirectly to reduced agro-biodiversity.

For IFOAM, organic seed companies and breeders will be most severely affected if these techniques are authorized for release without traceability requirements.

“This would hamper innovation in the organic plant breeding sector.”

Labelling and traceability

Since GMOs and products produced from or by GMOs shall not be used in organic production, “traceability and labelling is indispensable to avoid unintentional use of cultivars derived from NPBTs listed above by the organic sector”.

Organic farmers call for “transparency” as well as a “legally binding obligation” for breeding companies to disclose the applied breeding methods.

“Otherwise, seed producers and farmers cannot make an informed choice and this might cause unwanted contamination of organic seeds and fields,” the paper concludes.

BACKGROUND

New breeding techniques (NBTs) focus on developing new seed traits within a given species through genetic engineering.

They are seen as a promising new field for the agri-food sector and "are even necessary to meet the challenges of global changes such as population growth and climate change", according to a report by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC), the EU executive's in-house scientific body meant to inform policymaking.

Backers of the technology say NBTs should not be considered as GMOs because no foreign DNA is present in the resulting plants, which might have developped naturally. To opponents, they are just another attempt at selling GMOs to Europeans through the back door.
—

2. The organic sector urges the Commission to classify new genetic engineering techniques as GMOs

IFOAM, 14 January 2016
http://www.ifoam-eu.org/en/news/2016/01/14/press-release-organic-sector-urges-commission-classify-new-genetic-engineering

IFOAM EU has published a position paper on new genetic engineering techniques, ahead of the legal interpretation of the European Commission, expected by March 2016. The European organic food and farming sector considers that there are no legal or technical reasons to bypass the GMO legislation and to exempt these new breeding techniques from risk assessment and other legal requirements that apply to GMOs, and warns of severe economic consequences if some of these techniques are deregulated by the European Commission.

"New techniques bearing the same potential risks as the GMOs currently on the market should not be used in organic farming nor released into the environment, even less be exempted from risk assessment and traceability", warns Christopher Stopes, IFOAM EU President.

"Any attempt to exempt these new genetic engineering techniques from risk assessment, traceability and labelling would create havoc on the food, feed and seeds markets, and would backfire like the attempt to introduce GMOs in Europe backfired 20 years ago", adds Thomas Fertl, IFOAM EU Vice-President.

"The Commission could let consumers and the market decide, but the right to choose can only exist if there is a traceability and labelling system in place, like for currently labelled GMOs. Without traceability, it would be impossible to know if and where such products would be in the environment and in the food chain", he adds.

"We need innovation in the plant breeding sector and new agronomic approaches that make the most of the diversity of plant genetic resources, but innovation does not have to resort to genetic engineering techniques that can lead to unpredictable side effects, and whose benefits will mainly go the companies that will market them", adds Eric Gall, IFOAM EU Policy Manager.

The so-called “new plant breeding techniques” addressed in the position paper, such as cisgenesis or CRISPR/CAS, interfere at the sub-cellular and genomic level.

Therefore, IFOAM EU considers that they would not be compatible with the principles of organic farming and that they should not be used in organic farming.

Deregulation of new breeding techniques would threaten the freedom of choice of breeders, farmers and consumers. If some of these new techniques are excluded from the scope of the legislation on GMOs, the organic sector would face a situation where genetic modification techniques excluded from organic farming could be released into the environment and the food chain while being exempt from any traceability and labelling requirements.