The EU Commission in Brussels made a decision on the Crispr/Cas gene scissors on Wednesday. Seeds that have been produced using this young technology will hardly be regulated in the future. Brussels is hoping for competitiveness and more efficient agriculture. And that’s what the current draft law is about, which parliament and governments still have to approve.
Was plant die EU?
Since 2001, the use of genetic engineering in EU agriculture has been strictly regulated in all areas. The individual states can issue bans on sowing, for example, and products must be labelled. Genetic engineering has never been widely accepted by the general public.
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With the current decision, the Commission now wants to change the fact that seeds produced with Crispr/Cas fall under the conventional genetic engineering regulation decided more than two decades ago. The European Court of Justice ruled in 2018.
A distinction will be made in the future. The strict regulation applies to genetically modified plants, which have been inserted with gene components from other species. It no longer applies to seeds whose genetic information has been modified by the Crispr/Cas gene scissors. This should be allowed to be used widely in the future – with restrictions for organic products.
How does the gene scissors work?
Crispr/Cas is still a relatively young technology that became operational in the 2010s. The genetic information DNA is cut with the help of a special enzyme called Cas9. This makes it possible, for example, to repair defective genetic information, which can make a plant more resistant to environmental influences or diseases.
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Scientists Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna, who described the technology in 2012, received a 2020 Nobel Prize for their work. German companies that work in this area include Bayer and BASF.
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future of agriculture
What is special about this technology?
Scientists and other advocates of the technology emphasize that gene scissors are a milder intervention in the genome than classic genetic engineering. Concerns about the classic methods, in which foreign DNA is incorporated into the organisms, cannot be transferred to gene scissors.
With this technology, it is unlikely that the inserted genetic material could trigger allergies or that the inserted genes would be passed on in an uncontrolled manner, because the gene scissors only work with the existing genome. The result should be more like conventional breeding methods. From the classic crossing of plants to the more novel irradiation.
Why does the EU want to enable the use now?
On the one hand, it is about making future varieties more widely applicable in the EU if they can cope better with a changed climate or require fewer pesticides.
On the other hand, the European economy fears that it will lose touch worldwide and seed companies will continue to migrate on a large scale. With the technology, the genetic code can be specifically influenced in such a way that new breeds can be developed more quickly and precisely. In contrast to classic genetic engineering, it is no longer possible to determine whether the genetic material was modified with gene scissors or in the classic way by breeding.
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How are the political forces positioned?
Support for the plan is quite broad: Conservatives and Liberals are positioning themselves in Brussels and in Germany for the technology. There are skeptical voices among the Greens – in Brussels, for example, from the Austrian Greens MP Sarah Wiener, who has become known as a TV chef.
The German farmers’ association quickly welcomed the proposal on Wednesday as a “useful basis for discussion”. The organic farmers from Bioland, on the other hand, criticized the fact that the floodgates were now open to further agricultural patents. The draft also disregards the precautionary principle.
Development Aid Minister Svenja Schulze (SPD) let it be known via Twitter that genetic engineering had never been used for food security. Therefore, she continues to rely on sustainable agriculture.
What arguments do these critics have?
On the one hand, there are concerns that the plants processed with the gene scissors could trigger allergies and have negative long-term effects on humans and the ecosystem that cannot yet be foreseen.
On the other hand, there is also a general criticism of the capitalist agricultural industry: seed companies become even more powerful economically as plant manufacturers if they can offer genetically better varieties.
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In this way, the large corporations also bind farmers to themselves and increase profits – while classic farmers have to produce their own seeds and could therefore possibly fall behind in the competition. The criticism is not only aimed at developed countries, but especially at financially weak small farmers, for example in Africa, whose traditional way of doing business would then be endangered. Religious positions also fear human intervention in creation as a result of gene scissors.
Can consumers avoid Geneschere products?
Probably not. It is foreseeable that the new seed will be widely marketed and used. In contrast to classic genetic engineering, products would then not have to be specially labeled in the store.
This labeling requirement has so far prevented the large-scale use of genetic engineering in agriculture. European consumers may now be consuming genetically modified products unnoticed. However, organic farming should remain free of genetic scissors – just as certain pesticides and fertilizers are already left out in organic farming. Whether this will remain so in the long term probably depends on long-term experience with the new seed.
Is technology only about farming?
No. There are also medicinal uses. The gene scissors should enable new gene therapies in humans, for example via modified stem cells. However, that is not what the current EU regulation is about.
Nevertheless, researchers, companies and investors in Europe are already pushing for less bureaucratic procedures for approving studies on the subject. Here, too, companies and researchers in the USA and Asia are often further along…
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