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Environment

Risk assessment

GMOs : the Commission ignores its experts to reassure industry

Has the European Commission based its proposal to deregulate GMOs/NTGs on « sound science » or on the demands of seed companies ? Documents obtained by Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) show that the Commission chose to listen to the companies rather than its own experts at the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). The EFSA had indeed asked for […]

Environment

Lobby / conflict of interest

GMOs: the Commission ignores its experts to reassure industry

Has the European Commission based its proposal to deregulate GMOs/NTGs on “sound science” or on the demands of seed companies? Documents obtained by Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) show that the Commission chose to listen to the companies rather than its own experts at the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). The EFSA had indeed asked for […]

Journal

Authorization

GMO: In the USA, a decade of promises without commercialization

In the USA, in 2012, the authorities decided for the first time to exempt a GMO from regulatory requirements. It was a vine genetically modified by cisgenesis, one of the new techniques of genetic modification. Since then, nearly a hundred « new » GMOs have been the subject of a similar decision. Paradoxically, a decade after this […]

Economy

GMO-derived enzymes used in food and feed

Between 2005 and 2023, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) received and studied 601 applications for commercial authorization for enzymes produced by micro-organisms. These proteins, capable of catalyzing chemical reactions, play an important role in the food and feed industry. As part of our investigation, Inf’OGM consulted the 601 dossiers : almost half of them are […]

Economy

GMO-derived enzymes used in food and feed

Between 2005 and 2023, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) received and studied 601 applications for commercial authorization for enzymes produced by micro-organisms. These proteins, capable of catalyzing chemical reactions, play an important role in the food and feed industry. As part of our investigation, Inf’OGM consulted the 601 dossiers: almost half of them are […]

Ethic

GMOs: U-turn by the man in charge of the “Green deal”?

On 22 August, Frans Timmermans stepped down as a member of the European Commission to stand in the Dutch parliamentary elections to be held in the autumn of this year. A former executive vice-president of the European Commission, Timmermans was the architect of the European Green Deal, a package of legislative proposals that includes the […]

Health

Field trial

GMO mosquitoes: Oxitec comes back to Panama

Eight years after its first releases of transgenic mosquitoes in Panama, Oxitec is planning a new phase of studies in the country, in partnership with Panama’s Institute for Scientific Research and High-Tech Services (INDICASAT-AIP) and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The stated aim: to study the population dynamics of the GMO mosquito […]

Agronomy

Genetic resource

EU – “Seeds”: the other proposal in the legislative package

On 5 July 2023, the European Commission presented a proposal to revise the legislation on “plant propagating material”. This reform aims to merge several pieces of legislation and introduces a number of new features. However, it remains rather “inflexible”, with a number of provisions that are, to say the least, “out of touch”. On July […]

Journal

Biodiversity and farmers’ rights : still a long way to go

The agriculture/biodiversity interface is legislated by numerous texts (p.10-11). Some of these, such as the « Seeds Treaty » and the Convention on Biological Diversity, are the subject of regular meetings, during which the many debates often struggle to reach decisions. The last two major meetings were no exception to the rule… The international legal framework that […]

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