The European Parliament has given the green light to a new generation of GMOs. These plants are developed through new genomic techniques (NGTs) and are genetically modified without introducing DNA from other species, unlike first-generation GMOs created through transgenesis.
The Greens/EFA strongly oppose the deregulation of NGTs. This decision will hand even more power over our food system to a small number of agrochemical multinationals that will hold the patents, while weakening farmers’ autonomy and Europe’s food sovereignty. Furthermore, this decision violates the precautionary principle.
MEP Thomas WAITZ, Greens/EFA member of the Committee on Agricultural and rural development, comments:
“New genomic techniques, old greed. The complete deregulation of new genomic techniques will generate huge profits for mega-corporations while costing consumers transparency and farmers sovereignty. It will open the floodgates to patented seeds resulting in big legal problems for small- and medium scale farmers and independent seed breeders. In a few years, our food supply could be entirely controlled by a handful of multinationals. We fought for farmers. The conservatives fought for multinationals Bayer-Monsanto, Corteva and Syngenta.”
