Dear Readers,

Perhaps you could think of this Autumn as “the calm after the storm", when it comes to the political process and the long and difficult road to a new EU Regulation on New Genomic Techniques. But that would be oversimplifying it. It's now that the hard work of establishing  how this regulation will work in practice begins. 

We are now in a transition phase, and the detail is only starting to take shape. Member States are meeting the European Commission with the first expert meeting held on 4 November and a second scheduled for 16 November to discuss implementation. For Non-GMO operators, much is still unclear, from coexistence and monitoring to keeping supply chains free of NGTs. Our article in this edition sets out the open questions.

A case from England shows why they matter. A gene-edited, non-browning banana has been approved as “precision bred”, which raised questions about transparency and consumer choice. More recently, a GMWatch analysis questioned the molecular evidence behind that decision. The same issues will apply in the EU, where Category 1 NGT plants will not carry a specific label and will be exempt from GMO risk assessment once verified. 

Our report from the DARWIN policy workshop looks at the other side of the coin: whether New GMOs can be detected, and what it would take to make testing work in practice. 

We also report on the latest Non-GMO Market Report, which shows supplies of Non-GM soy, maize and rapeseed tightening after this summer’s heat.

Please keep in touch and follow us on LinkedIn, where we are publishing a series of explainers on the NGT legislation. Thank you for reading, and see you in the next edition.

If you're interested in becoming a member of ENGA or would like to find out more, take a look at our website or get in touch.

Kind regards,

The team at ENGA