Following the European Court of Justice ruling, that plants obtained by recent techniques such as CRISPR-Cas9-mediated genome editing mutagenesis are regulated as GMO, the VIB statement addresses the huge problems Europe will face in plant breeding in the future. EPSO anticipates the same problems as depicted in the statement, which is in line with our first reaction, and will publish a full statement in November.

European Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) Roadmap 2018 published, identifying 8 projects with ESFRI Landmark status and 6 new projects entering the roadmap.

The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) 2018 setting out actions to achieve the goal by 2030 and confirming a rise in world hunger: the number of people who suffer from hunger has been growing over the past three years, returning to levels from almost a decade ago. Multiple forms of malnutrition are evident in many countries: adult obesity is growing even as forms of undernutrition persist. Climate variability and extremes are key drivers behind this rise, together with conflict and economic downturns.