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Has the EU got it wrong on genetically modified and gene edited crops? Nigel Halford investigates
THE CROPS
T
he genetic modification of plants is not a new technology: the first genetically modified (GM) plant was reported in 1984, the first commercial GM variety (a tomato with improved shelf-life) was launched in 1994, and the first major GM commodity crops were in the field in 1996. ‘Genetically modified’ refers to a plant whose genome, comprising several tens of thousands of genes, has been changed by the artificial insertion of an additional gene or small number of genes. Moving single genes into a plant cannot be done via conventional breeding, and genetic modification also allows plant breeders to use genes from any source in nature – or even genes that have been made in a test tube. Since the mid-1990s, the use of GM crops by farmers around the world has risen rapidly, and by 2018 they were cultivated on more than 190m hectares, or about 12% of global crop land. Genetic modification is now a well-established technique in plant breeding, and GM crops have had an excellent safety record through a generation of consumption. GM cotton and soybean varieties have become so popular with farmers that approximately 80% of these crops are now GM. In contrast, the area of GM crop cultivation in the EU has hovered around the 100,000 hectare mark since the 1990s – a tiny fraction of the global total. That is not 20 | THE ACTUARY | JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020
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to say that the EU does not use GM crops: in the first 12 weeks of the 2018-2019 marketing year, for example, the EU imported more than 2.8m tonnes of soybeans, almost all supplied by countries that cultivate predominantly GM varieties. These soybeans would almost certainly have been used for animal feed; indeed, EU animal feed production has been heavily
dependent on imported GM crop products since the early 2000s.
How did we get into this situation?
The EU GM approval process is based on Food and Feed Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 and Regulation (EU) No 503/2013, drawing on Directive (EC) No 2001/18, which defines a genetically modified organism (GMO) as an organism in which the genetic material has been altered in a way that does not occur naturally. The authorisation procedure comprises risk assessment by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)’s GMO Panel and risk management by the European Commission. Once EFSA has issued its opinion, the European Commission makes a draft decision that is then voted on by the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed (PAFF). The representatives on PAFF are not scientists, and the qualified majority voting system means that
By 2018, GM crops were cultivated on more than 190m hectares of land worldwide
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27/01/2020 10:51
