In the EU, the number of active substances for crop protection has drastically decreased over the past few years. NGTs have a role to play in reducing the need to apply pesticides. Breeding disease-resistant varieties therefore becomes increasingly important and new breeding tools like genome editing have already proven their value in various R&Dapproaches.
Four co-signing associations support the conclusions of the Commission study stating that the current GMO legislation in the EU faces clear implementation challenges and is no longer fit for purpose. They strongly welcome the Commission’s intention to initiate a short-term policy action on plants derived from targeted mutagenesis and cisgenesis.
There is the hope that such a policy initiative will create a more enabling and innovation-friendly environment for products resulting from these breeding methods, while maintaining the high standards of EU food and feed production.
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Source: europatat.eu