The possible transfer of HZPC's breeding techniques to the United States is shaking up politics. The VVD asked parliamentary questions on Wednesday.
Director Gerard Backx said during the Potatoes Theme Day in Dronten in February that as long as potato breeders are not allowed to use breeding techniques such as cisgenesis or Cripr-Cas in Europe, he may be moving the research to the United States. 'The technology is wrongly linked to genetic modification. No politician wants to burn his hands on that. You don't make yourself popular with such topics. Banning things to advance food safety is welcome, but as soon as there is even a hint of doubt…', Backx explains.
The discussion has now been going on for eight years. Nevertheless, at the end of 2016 a motion exempting the biotechnological technique Crispr-Cas from the strict requirements that apply to genetic modification was passed by a majority of the House of Representatives.
To date, however, there has been no decision from the cabinet. However, Backx's statement has put the subject back on the agenda, because VVD MP Remco Bosma has Parliamentary questions asked.
Bosma asks the State Secretary for Economic Affairs, among other things, whether he shares the concerns that the departure of these departments will cause the Netherlands to experience an enormous bloodletting and thus effectively end the top sector policy. He repeatedly wants to know whether there is a proactive attitude to retain the industry. He also discusses the technology itself.
Although HZPC's plans are not yet concrete and the director first wants to wait for the political outcome, he is serious. 'If it definitively turns out that we cannot do this gene research here, but in the US, then we will do our work in the US. We put our own people there or we outsource it to an institute or university.'
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[url=http://www.boerenbusiness.nl/aardappelen/ artikel/10873726/Possible-departure-HZPC-naar-VS-schudt-politics-wakker]Possible departure of HZPC to the US shakes up politics[/url]
As a sector you have to listen to your consumer. If the consumer has arguments, you have to take them seriously, sometimes they are mainly emotional and sometimes rational. When we look at public health and see (or don't want to see) the developments, we have to start asking ourselves, do they have a point and if so, we should take them into account. If not, we should be able to convince them. We mustn't forget to ask ourselves what underlies the rising health care costs, as a professor at a medical school put it this way, "85% of diseases and ailments are food-related". Could the fact that we have strayed too far from natural thinking in our starting points, dictated by the financial world, lie at the root of the growing sick and very bad? Scientific reports clearly point in this direction. Let us learn from dairy farming and not try to prove us right with false arguments, the truth comes back like a boomerang and will work enormously against the sector. The problems that are outlined must be solved in a natural way. It is possible only it requires a different way of thinking. This creates social support and that gives a strategic market position.
