United Kingdom
October 24, 2018
Scientists from more than 85 European research institutions, including Rothamsted Research, have called upon European policy makers to use the most up to date scientific evidence when evaluating the development of new crop varieties.
The signatories, including Rothamsted Research Director, Professor Achim Dobermann, argue that the relevant legislation is too stringent and does not reflect the current state of our scientific knowledge.
“Organisms created through precision breeding should fall under the same laws that apply to classically bred plant varieties,” he said.
When humans first domesticated plants for food, the only way they could get beneficial traits was to wait for unpredictable natural mutations to arise and then breed from that plant – so called artificial selection.
In modern times, chemicals or radiation have been applied to seeds to speed up this process of mutation, although such methods are just as likely to produce undesirable results as welcome ones.
Precision breeding uses recently developed, targeted techniques to edit small sections of the existing DNA that underlie very specific plant traits such as drought or disease tolerance.
Unlike GM, it does not involve the transfer of genetic material from other species.
Professor Dobermann added: “Over the course of the coming generation, the world’s population will increase by twenty five percent. Add in political uncertainty, climate change, less land available for farming, and declining natural resources, and it will be a huge challenge to feed these two billion extra mouths.
“Precision breeding will open the door to the development of higher yielding, more nutritious, more resilient crops.
“Science needs every possible tool in its toolbox if it is to create specially tailored crops that produce more food from less land and do so in the face of increased drought and diseases. Too stringent European regulations will essentially halt scientific progress in this area.
“That’s why I have endorsed this appeal to safeguard innovative plant breeding techniques from outdated and uninformed decision making.”
- Support this position paper and add your name to the list of signatories here.
- Read here the position paper on the ECJ ruling on CRISPR
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