BIOVEGEN supports EUSAGE to fairly regulate the use of CRISPR in crops

Genome editing is a revolutionary technology whose significance has been recognized with the awarding of the Nobel Prize to its discoverers. Its application to crop improvement transcends the scope of research.

Genome editing is a new approach to genetic improvement based on knowledge, which takes advantage of plants' own natural solutions, contributing to reducing the current requirements for external inputs and making more environmentally friendly food production possible.

The decision of the Court of Justice of the EU to subject plants improved by genome editing to the complicated and costly European regulation on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) places this technology outside the usual scope of breeding and registering plant varieties.

This represents a severe blow to the expectations and promises that genetic editing offers for the sustainability and competitiveness of a sector such as agri-food, which is so important in our country.

The numerous reactions to this ruling have led the EU to carry out a study on its importance and impact within the Union.

BIOVEGEN joins the numerous academic and business voices that demand a review of said legislation, so that it does not restrict the enormous opportunities that these techniques can bring to Spanish and European agriculture, emphasizing the need to create favorable conditions, based on scientific evidence for the optimal development of plant production.

In this sense, BIOVEGEN joins and supports the letter launched by EUSAGE (European Sustainable Agriculture through Genome Editing), where The scientific community represented by EU-SAGE points out the need for the EU study to promote a proportionate and non-discriminatory regulatory status for crops improved by gene editing in European legislation,  and that allows the development and introduction into the European market of crops with edited genomes.

Crop Genomic Edition Symposium: beyond science. May 12, 2021