Plants and animals created by innovative gene-editing technology have been genetically modified and should be regulated as such, the EU’s top court has ruled. The landmark decision ends 10 years of debate in Europe about what is – and is not – a GM food, with a victory for environmentalists, and a bitter blow to Europe’s biotech industry.
Greenpeace said that the ruling meant the British government – along with Belgium, Sweden and Finland – was now obliged to “revoke” the green light for the trials until appropriate precautions had been taken. In their ruling, the EU judges said: “Organisms obtained by mutagenesis are GMOs [genetically modified organisms] … It follows that those organisms come, in principle, within the scope of the GMO directive and are subject to the obligations laid down [therein].”
Franziska Achterberg, Greenpeace EU’s food policy director, said the court’s ruling had prioritized the protection of human health and the environment. “Releasing these new GMOs into the environment without proper safety measures is illegal and irresponsible,” she said, “particularly given that gene editing can lead to unintended side effects. The European commission and European governments must now ensure that all new GMOs are fully tested and labelled, and that any field trials are brought under GMO rules.”
Date: July 25, 2018
Image: Google Images
Coordinator: EnvGuide Team (Xuhui Zeng, Yuxin Zhang, Jiongwen Chen)
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jul/25/gene-editing-is-gm-europes-highest-court-rules