warning comes from the German Bioeconomy Council<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0(BEC), a panel of 17 researchers who advise the German government, and is widely echoed by plant researchers around the continent.<\/p>\nThere was a similar message from 33 research institution, universities and plant breeders in the U.K last week in an open letter to agriculture minister and arch-Brexiteer Michael Gove, asking for a round-table meeting involving all stakeholder to agree a clear way forward on research and future use of new plant breeding technologies. Gove has previously indicated he would be prepared to lift EU restrictions on genetically modified crops and farm animals, as part of a \u201cgreen Brexit.\u201d<\/p>\n
The moves follow a surprise ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in July, which said that new products created by Crispr and similar techniques that offer a precision tool for editing a plant\u2019s genetic code, must go through the same time-consuming approval process prescribed under 2001 EU legislation for older genetic modification techniques.<\/p>\n
“In its current form, EU genetic engineering legislation cannot do justice to the opportunities and challenges of [Crispr] technologies,\u201d BEC said.<\/p>\n
Plant breeders working with Crispr say the technique can speed development of a new generation of hardier, more productive, more nutritious food crops, improving traits such as pest, salinity and drought resistance, or boosting nutritional content.<\/p>\n
They warn that the ECJ ruling could paralyse funding and force an exodus of talent from Europe to places where there are not the same onerous restrictions. The US announced in March it has no plans to regulate genome editing when used to produce new plant varieties that are indistinguishable from those bred through traditional breeding methods. China has made a similar announcement.<\/p>\n
Small companies locked out<\/strong><\/p>\nThe ruling is \u201cdevastating\u201d to smaller companies, which will need to invest big money to meet the regulatory requirements for bringing a GMO crop on the market in Europe, said Holger Puchta, plant biochemist at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany. \u201cOnly global international players will be able to do so,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
If the ruling had been different, \u201cBig funders and companies would of course have invested a lot in developing new crop varieties. Now, they are unlikely to do it,\u201d said Stefan Jansson, plant biochemist at Ume\u00e5 University in Sweden. \u201cEuropean taxpayers will [also] be hesitant to fund research that only will strengthen agriculture in other parts of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scientists say making Crispr techniques subject to laws developed for older genetic modification techniques which involve introducing genes from other species, imposes expensive and risky hurdles. Even when crops pass strict regulatory criteria, EU countries can ban them.<\/p>\n
Growing a GMO plant outside of the lab would cost about \u20ac5,000, \u201cand take one week of my time to get the bureaucracy right,\u201d Jansson said. \u201cIf we would get the permit, the costs associated with the experiment would also increase very much.\u201d All this is in Sweden, \u201cwhich is the most liberal of all EU countries in this respect,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Subjecting gene editing research to GMO regulations will threaten funding too, scientists said.<\/p>\n
Calls in the forthcoming EU research programme Horizon Europe are likely to \u201cbecome even more restricted for the use of this technology,\u201d said Johnathan Napier, a crop geneticist at the Rothamsted agricultural research centre in the UK.<\/p>\n
Napier\u2019s institute was one of 33 signatories of last week\u2019s letter to the UK government calling for clarity on genome editing following the ECJ ruling. \u201cWe feel there are significant questions that must be addressed urgently by government if the UK is to retain its strength in plant genetics,\u201d the letter said.<\/p>\n
PhD students, meanwhile, are finding that industry positions in the field in Europe are in short supply, said Puchta. \u201cThis is a fatal development for the academic labs in Europe too which are in urgent need of these students,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Source: Science Business<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The European Commission needs to quickly propose new rules for crops created by modern targeted plant breeding techniques such as Crispr \u2013Cas9 genome editing, or face a withering of Europe\u2019s agricultural research base. The\u00a0warning comes from the German Bioeconomy Council\u00a0(BEC), a panel of 17 researchers who advise the German government, and is widely echoed by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-voedsel-materialen"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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