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EU Scientific Advice Mechanism in Lockstep With US Government, GMO Lobby

The European Commission’s Scientific Advice Mechanism (SAM) has issued a statement saying that the EU’s laws on GMOs should be revised to clear the path for “new GM” techniques, often referred to as gene editing. However, the statement is unscientific and is strongly biased in favour of the GMO industry, at the expense of public health and the environment.

November 26, 2018 | Source: Beyond GM | by Claire Robinson

The European Commission’s Scientific Advice Mechanism (SAM) has issued a statement saying that the EU’s laws on GMOs should be revised to clear the path for “new GM” techniques, often referred to as gene editing. However, the statement is unscientific and is strongly biased in favour of the GMO industry, at the expense of public health and the environment.

The SAM’s statement follows this year’s ruling by the EU Court of Justice (ECJ) that certain “new GM” techniques called “directed mutagenesis” fall under the GMO legislation. This means that safety checks and GMO labelling are now mandatory for the products of these new techniques.

In its response to the court ruling, the SAM adopts the same conclusion as the GMO lobby: The democratically established regulations must be changed. The SAM’s statement says, “In view of the Court’s ruling, it becomes evident that new scientific knowledge and recent technical developments have made the GMO Directive no longer fit for purpose.”