Protecting the environment has been a constant throughout the various reforms of European agricultural policy over the last 10 years. Nonetheless, the impact of agri-food sector on natural resources continues to be singled out for criticism, despite the efforts engaged. Transcending such differences is a matter of urgency.
In November, the US Food & Drugs Administration, the public office responsible for food safety, approved the first step that opens the door to commercialization to an imitation of ‘chicken’ produced in the lab by UPSIDE Food. At the same time, ingredient-provider start up is proposing to replace bees with bioreactors and precision-fermentation to supply […]
November was marked by the Commission communication on fertilizers whose aim is to face the consequences of the skyrocketing prices for this agricultural input for farmers. On the legislative dossiers, the revision of the sustainable use of pesticides has also been affected by the current crisis and the consequences of the Russian aggression to Ukraine, […]
While at the European Parliament the political group of the Greens hosted the ‘GM-free Europe’ event where policy makers and stakeholders from national and NGO organisations expressed worries around the possibility to a deregulation of ‘new GMOs’, the Commissioner for Health replied to the chair of the AGRI Committee saying that new technologies could be […]
Outside the EU, states like Kenya and Ukraine open up to the possibility to have a more flexible legislation around genetic engineering techniques. Within the EU, the French organization for biotechnology pushes for a stronger use of new genomic techniques to assure food security and face the climate challenges. At the same time, EFSA developed […]
After the informal AgriCouncil in Prague middle of September, EU ministers seemed to be particularly open to the new modifications of the EU legislations on GMO, assuring solid impact assessment and safety as the top priority. In Austria, an NGO guides a pan-European on-line petition to keep the status quo on GMO regulations, fearing that […]
While the debate on New Genomic Techniques in the EU continues, with European institutions and member states taking clearer positions on the topic – Italian MEPs pledge for the support of the revision of the legislation so to ease the application of new genomic methods for plant breeding; the Italian low Chamber stared formal discussions […]