They are equated with GMOs but tend to escape the meshes of relevant European legislation. Therefore, there is a real risk of finding them on one’s table without even knowing it.
The agri-food products in question are made using “New Plant Breeding Techniques” (NPBTs ), which develop new seed traits within a given species through genetic engineering.
NPBTs, opposition from organic organizations
NPBTs are being strongly opposed by European organic organizations, which are calling on the European Commission to equate them with GMOs.
In early 2016, the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements EU (IFOAM EU) forwarded a policy position to the European Commission where it called, among other things, for these new techniques to be subject to a specific risk assessment for the purpose of authorization, traceability, and specific mandatory labeling, as is already the case for other GMO products.
‘Differently GMO’ vegetables
Of the same tenor is the document published by the German organic farmers’ organization, VLOG, which highlights the obligation to ensure consumer safety and freedom of choice.
In the absence of rules consistent with those established for GMOs, VLOG argues, products subjected to these genetic modifications cannot be monitored, nor can they be subjected to corrective action in emergencies.
In the absence of regulation, a massive spread of new “differently GMO” plants, unchecked, in total disregard of the precautionary principle, is conceivable.
In the US, products from NPBTs cannot be certified as organic
The new modified crop lobby, on the other hand, argues that European GMO regulations are inapplicable because no foreign DNA would be present in the traits of the new seeds. It is therefore yet another Trojan horse aimed at spreading the new products on European shelves, where consumer aversion to GMOs is well known.
However, even in the homeland of GMOs, new laboratory crosses are being resisted: in fact, the U.S. National Organic Standards Board has ruled that products made by NPBTs techniques cannot be qualified as organic.
