After this week’s adoption by the European Parliament of the legislation on plants obtained by New Genomic Techniques (NGTs), Europe’s organic movement has reaffirmed its commitment to produce food without NGTs – and warned that additional measures will be needed to protect European seed sovereignty.  

The new rules exempt so-called NGTs from key requirements that apply to other genetically modified organisms (GMOs), including risk assessment procedures, traceability and consumer labelling. 

While the development is seen by many in the organic and wider European farming community as a step backwards for biosafety, transparency and freedom of choice, the mobilisation of the organic movement has secured important safeguards: NGTs will remain prohibited in organic production, and seed lots containing NGTs will have to be labelled, providing farmers with the minimum information necessary to avoid planting NGT crops. 

The most worrying concern left unresolved by today’s vote is the issue of patents on traits and genetic sequences, which risk limiting access to genetic resources, reducing innovation, increasing dependencies, and will lead to increasing market concentration within the food system.  

According to Jan Plagge, president of IFOAM Organics Europe: “The organic movement remains committed to producing food without GMOs and without NGTs, and will continue to engage in systemic and open-source agroecological innovation to make whole farming systems more sustainable. The alleged benefits of NGTs are based on pure speculation, and we urge policy-makers to pay more attention to who controls the technologies they choose to deregulate, and to the impact of technologies like NGTs on European food sovereignty.” 

Like many scientists, civil society organisations, farmers, processors and retailers, the organic movement remains convinced that systemic approaches to farming, innovation, breeding, and pest and disease management offer a more effective path towards long-term sustainability and resilience. 

IFOAM Organics Europe said this week: “Despite repeated warnings from farmers, breeders and civil society organisations, a majority of MEPs chose not to strengthen safeguards against harmful effects of too broad and strong intellectual property rights like patents. In the run-up to the vote, amendments were tabled to strengthen safeguards against the harmful effects of patents on seeds and genetic resources. These measures to limit the scope of patents aimed to preserve fair competition, support Europe’s diverse breeding sector and protect breeders and farmers’ freedom to operate. IFOAM Organics Europe will continue advocating for limits to the scope of patents to ensure that the hundreds of small and medium-sized breeding companies that form the backbone of Europe’s seed sector can continue their work. Safeguarding biodiversity and breeding diversity remains essential for European sovereignty and long-term food security.”

Main image: Courstey, Being Organic in the EU