German agricultural organizations have called on the new center-left ‘traffic light coalition’ to allow new gene-editing techniques such as CRISPR/cas for greater food security and sustainability in agriculture.
The more than twenty German organizations for plant breeding, agriculture, and livestock consider it incomprehensible that the new gene techniques are not included in the new coalition agreement.
The challenges ahead cannot be tackled without appropriate innovative tools for crop cultivation and plant breeding, they argue. The associations remind that agriculture faces major challenges: food security, dealing with climate change, environmental and biodiversity protection while maintaining competitiveness.
The implementation of the European Farm to Fork strategy and the plans of the new federal government to achieve 30% organic farming within ten years will have a significant impact on agricultural productivity in Europe, the agricultural organizations warn.
“Further innovations in crop cultivation and plant breeding are urgently needed to prevent yield declines. For this, we also need suitable tools that are already standard outside Europe, such as the CRISPR/Cas gene scissors,” said Dr. Henning Ehlers, general director of the German Raiffeisen Association.
Last month, the European Commission completed a study on possibly adapted procedures for the approval of new breeding techniques such as CRISPR/Cas. EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides recently stated at a symposium that the EU will not compromise on the safety of new methods.
However, according to Kyriakides, it is also necessary to address climate and environmental problems. An important part of this is the new genetic manipulation, Kyriakides said recently at a European Commission conference, according to aiz.info. “The cost of doing nothing is high,” warned the commissioner about possible missed opportunities.
According to her, the European Commission is mainly focusing on innovations and new resistant varieties that allow for the reduction of pesticides.