Agriculture

With fertiliser shortages, drought and declining soil fertility threatening agricultural production in Europe, there is increased pressure to relax EU rules on the use of genome editing in plant breeding

There is a clear need to increase food production, but in the face of climate change, emerging diseases, soil erosion, a shortage of agricultural workers and other problems, the knowledge and technologies we have today are clearly insufficient to achieve this

Commission appears keen on allowing crops created with newer, more precise editing techniques. But it will face stiff opposition from environmental groups and Green MEPs

Study paves the way to update EU legislation and allow gene editing in agriculture. But environmentalists and organic farmers say modified crop plants should continue to be labelled as GMOs