NEWS
Stay updated on the latest developments in plant science policy and EPSO activities!
On 14 May 2021 EPSO member-scientists and policy makers from sixteen countries across Europe held the fourth open-minded, informal meeting to assess the situation for research and development on New Plant Breeding Technologies (NPBTs) after the ruling of the ECJ in July 2018.
They exchanged views on the current situation of genome editing (GE) in Europe and possible next steps to enable Europe to better address climate change, achieve food and nutritional security, and establish a sustainable agriculture in Europe and world-wide. Such steps should bring the discussion forward on the EU legislation and facilitating potential flagships. The meeting was held under Chatham House Rules.
The next meeting will be held in November 2021.
As explained in our statement of 19.2.2019, EPSO offers to collaborate with policy makers to develop an appropriate future-ready regulation to enable the European public sector, small- and medium-sized companies and farmers to contribute more comprehensively to food and nutritional security and to use all available tools to reduce the environmental impact of agriculture. Notwithstanding the technical option retained, EPSO supports a science-based revision of the present European legislation establishing a more proportionate product-based risk assessment. EPSO is also willing to contribute to the societal debate on genome editing and to communicate in a fact-based and yet accessible manner about innovative plant science and its societal role.
Ralf Wilhelm, Jens Sundstrom, Alan Schulman, Ernst van den Ende and Karin Metzlaff
Contacts:
- Ralf Wilhelm & Jens Sundstrom, EPSO Chairs WG Agricultural Technologies
- Alan Schulman, EPSO President
- Ernst van den Ende, EPSO Board
- Karin Metzlaff, EPSO Executive Director
The Strategic Plan outlined for 2021-2026 will help accelerate access to and benefit sharing from these resources that include seed and other plant collections, along with provenance and characterization data, so they can be used for the sustainable production of food, feed, fiber, medicines, and renewable natural products.
Available variation can be harnessed to deliver new cultivars that combine improved taste, nutritional value and human health benefits with climate-resilient qualities and increased carbon sequestration that achieve sustainable yields with fewer agricultural inputs.
DivSeek is a global community of practice committed to unlocking the potential of crop biodiversity so that it can be used to enhance the productivity, sustainability and resilience of crops, agricultural systems and supply chains.
Several EPSO members are active in DivSeek: Nils Stein & Andreas Graner (IPK / DE), Jean-Christophe Glaszmann (CIRAD / FR), Roberto Tuberosa (UniBol / IT), Theo van Hintum (WUR / NL) and Eva-Maria Sehr (AIT / AT).
Read more:
DivSeek media Release, Click below to download the media release in PDF.
Strategy to improve the Generation and Sharing of Information about Global Plant Genetic Resources https://divseekintl.org/strategic-plan/
Contacts:
Graham J King, DivSeek, [email protected] , www.divseekintl.org
Nils Stein, IPK Gatersleben / DE, [email protected]
The study cites the substantial link between innovation in plant science and the ambitious goals of the EU claimed in The Green Deal and its Farm to Fork and Biodiversity strategies, which is greatly supported by EPSO. The use of NGTs in plants can support the transition to a resilient, sustainable and secure agriculture for food and feed production, thereby also contributing to the sustainable development goals of the United Nations. The study also underlines the necessity to update the European legislation on GMOs in order to address innovation and biosafety concerns appropriately without preventing scientific and societal progress. Moreover, the legislation must allow Europe to maintain its research and innovation environment among worldwide competition so that Europe can still produce its own food and contribute to food and nutritional security globally.
NGTs and NGT-products have a role to play in the European Farm-to-Fork strategy by ensuring sustainable food production and the shift to healthy, sustainable diets, for example through disease-resistant crops (reducing pesticide use) with better water and nutrient use efficiency (lowering water and fertiliser use) that yield allergen-free and nutritious food promoting human health in the light of climate change. They can also contribute to implementation of the European Biodiversity strategy by improving the performance and nutritional content of underutilised fruit, vegetable, legume, and cereal crops and thereby substantially increase the diversity of cultivated crops.
EPSO looks forward to engaging as a major stakeholder with the European Commission, as the EC indicated to communicate with Member States, European Parliament and stakeholders to achieve a well-balanced policy action on plants derived from targeted mutagenesis and cisgenesis. EPSO will provide scientific input in the course of the consultations with the EC and other stakeholders.
EPSO First reaction and related EPSO publications, 30.4.2021
EC Study on new genomic techniques, 29.4.2021
Contacts:
- Ralf Wilhelm, Frank Hartung & Jens Sundstrom, EPSO Chairs WG Agricultural Technologies
- Alan Schulman, Ernst van den Ende & Karin Metzlaff (EPSO President, Board, Executive Director)
On 3 November 2020 EPSO member-scientists and policy makers from ten countries across Europe held the third open-minded, informal meeting to assess the situation for research and development on New Plant Breeding Technologies (NPBTs) after the ruling of the ECJ in July 2018.
They exchanged views on the current situation of genome editing (GE) in Europe and possible next steps to enable Europe to better address climate change, achieve food and nutritional security, and establish a sustainable agriculture in Europe and world-wide. Such steps should bring the discussion forward on the EU legislation and facilitating potential flagships. The meeting was held under Chatham House Rules.
The next meeting will be held in May 2021.
As explained in our statement of 19.2.2019, EPSO offers to collaborate with policy makers to develop an appropriate future-ready regulation to enable the European public sector, small- and medium-sized companies and farmers to contribute more comprehensively to food and nutritional security and to use all available tools to reduce the environmental impact of agriculture. Notwithstanding the technical option retained, EPSO supports a science-based revision of the present European legislation establishing a more proportionate product-based risk assessment. EPSO is also willing to contribute to the societal debate on genome editing and to communicate in a fact-based and yet accessible manner about innovative plant science and its societal role.
Ralf Wilhelm, Jens Sundstrom, Alan Schulman, Ernst van den Ende and Karin Metzlaff
Contacts:
- Ralf Wilhelm & Jens Sundstrom, EPSO Chairs WG Agricultural Technologies
- Alan Schulman, EPSO President
- Ernst van den Ende, EPSO Board
- Karin Metzlaff, EPSO Executive Director
The award honours a discovery made in basic research on bacteria, which has led to transformative applications in the plant and medical sciences. It is the first Nobel prize to be shared by two women.
In plant science, genome editing enables scientists and breeders to improve the whole range of plants, from fruit, fibre, and vegetable crops to legumes, cereals, and trees, on which people depend for food, health, and livelihoods. The method enables diversity enhancement and precise, targeted improvements leading to better nutritional quality, disease resistance, stress tolerance, and environmental sustainability for rapid advancement through breeding to farmers’ use. Even underutilised crops, on which critical-mass breeding efforts have not so far focused, due to their poor market share compared to the time and effort needed to improve them with classical methods, will benefit from the new genomic techniques. The resulting crops will contribute to environmental sustainability, very important in light of climate change, as well as to diverse diets and human health.
Plant scientists call upon policy makers to improve European legislation, so that the potential of genome editing to improve underutilised crops is unfettered from the substantial time and financial burden of the GM legislation to which it is currently tied. If genome-edited plants were only subject to the standard legislation any new plant variety has to follow, the diversity of cultivated crops as a whole, a main target of the European Biodiversity strategy for 2030, would be substantially increased.
Finally, the application of genome editing to neglected and medicinal species will help to explore and secure biodiversity, demonstrating its value by revealing the metabolic pathways of a large variety of bioactive secondary metabolites, which may for example have high potential in fighting against new diseases or against antibiotic resistant bacteria.
Click here to read: Full EPSO statement 07.10.2020, Nobel Prize PR, 07.10.2020
Contacts:
- Alan Schulman, LUKE, FI & EPSO President
- Angelo Santino, CNR, IT & EPSO Nutritional Security WG co-chair
- Frank Hartung, JKI, DE & EPSO Agricultural Technologies WG co-chair
- Kirsi-Marja Oksman-Caldentey, VTT, FI & EPSO Molecular Farming WG co-chair
- Karin Metzlaff, EPSO
Does a point mutation look different when it is made by one process or another? No! One cannot tell from the mutation itself whether it was spontaneous or triggered by genome editing, and additional information on the history of the genetic material is needed as a precondition to evaluate from which breeding process it originates. Spontaneous or edited, point mutations are the same for all intents and purposes.
EPSO fully agrees that known gene edits including single nucleotide changes can be detected by PCR. EPSO declared this in its input to the present EC study on NGTs (New Genomic Techniques) and connected statements. The Greenpeace-funded work by the Chhalliyil et al (2020) publication merely confirms this well-established fact.
However, the published method has two main limitations: It does not present a means to establish that genome editing is the cause of the detected mutation, since it just displays a sequence modification without identification of the modification process. This has been seen from the beginning as the major challenge, since edited plants produced in countries with more open regulation are not declared as such. In addition, the method is not applicable to unknown gene modifications, since edited plants, contrary to classical GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms), do not share common elements, and a method detecting a specific sequence variation cannot detect different variations in other plants and sequences. The detection of a single nucleotide change does not provide any proof by itself that this change was provoked by genome editing rather than natural mutation.
Click here to read: Full EPSO statement 09.09.202
Contacts:
- Alan Schulman, LUKE, FI & EPSO President
- Peter Rogowsky, INRAE, FR & EPSO AgT WG chair
- Karin Metzlaff, EPSO, BE