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The CBGP (UPM-INIA) joins the Letter recently submitted to the European Commission (EC) by the European Sustainable Agriculture through Genome Editing network (EU-SAGE) to call upon the EC to promote a proportionate, non-discriminatory approach to innovative plant breeding in the EC study on novel genomic techniques.
The EU-SAGE network, representing researchers from 133 leading European plant science institutes and learned societies, fully supports the ambitious 2050 EU sustainability goals. EU-SAGE advocates that Europe needs to deploy all possible approaches and technologies, including innovative plant breeding like genome editing, to address these sustainability and biodiversity challenges.
Naturally occurring genome editing, like the CRISPR system, was adapted as a breeding technology that enables the very precise, efficient, and cost-effective development and selection of new, improved crop varieties. Genome editing is a knowledge-based plant breeding approach that unlocks natural solutions and is contributing to reduce the current need to apply external inputs (fertilizers and pesticides) and rendering food production more eco-friendly.
The scientific community represented by EU-SAGE points to the need that the EC study will promote a proportionate, non-discriminatory regulatory status of genome-edited crops under European Union legal frame (see letter here)
To contribute to this scientific/innovation discussion, the CBGP (UPM-INIA) has organized, in the frame of its new CBGP_S3-Forum Program, the Workshop “Novel Genome Editing Technologies: Evolution and Revolution”, with the participation of three keynote speakers: Prof. Holger Puchta, Dr. Sigrid Bratlie and Dr. Gabino Sánchez. In the Forum, it was discussed the potential contribution of Genome Editing technology to sustainable agriculture goals and the different legal policies and scenarios to commercialize genome-edited products.
Access to the EU-SAGE letter:
English