News Breeding
France wants to relax European GMO rules
The French government believes that crops bred using so-called 'gene-editing techniques' differ from genetically modified crops. Julien Denormandie, France's agriculture minister, says the strict ban on genetically modified crops (GMO) should be extended.
"The new breeding techniques are not GMOs," says Denormandie. "With these new techniques we can develop a variety much faster that would also have been created through traditional breeding and that is a good thing." He therefore argues that the new breeding techniques should no longer fall under GMO legislation.
Banned in the EU
The European Court of Justice said in 2018 that all breeding techniques involving artificial changes in DNA are prohibited. This means that 'gene editing' (such as with CRISPR-Cas) is not allowed in Europe. Gene editing can speed up traditional breeding, mainly through the targeted changes in the DNA. Unlike with GMO, however, no use is now made of so-called 'foreign DNA'. The European Commission launched an investigation into the subject at the end of 2019 and the results are expected in April this year.
Earlier this month, the British Minister of Agriculture also started a consultation round about the possibilities for 'gene-editing techniques'. Because of Brexit, England is no longer bound by European rules.
Jurphaas Lugtenburg
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