Confronted with a deteriorating situation, divided European Union decision-makers are debating new rules for genetically modified crops.
Supporters say seeds produced using gene editing techniques are less vulnerable to drought and disease -- and require less water. The new techniques are a mix of genomic editing tools that alter a plant's genetic make-up without the addition of foreign genetic material, unlike"transgenic" GMOs that include DNA from other species.
The proposals, she said,"will strongly signal to farmers, researchers and industry that this is the way forward in the EU".In a document from February seen by AFP, the commission looked at whether it should treat traditional seeds and those produced using the new techniques, with modifications that could in theory have happened naturally, as the same.
Pascal Canfin, a French centrist MEP and the chairman of the parliament's environment committee, said the new biotechnology could"be part of the useful solutions for the agricultural transition" if they help avoid using chemical pesticides.Left-wing parties in the EU parliament are resisting specific laws for NGTs, insisting that the new technology already comes under current wide-ranging rules on GMOs.