Reject the darkness of anti-science fearmongering - look towards the light of prosperity and progress... edition #7 EU Ag Newsletter

?? Huge vote in the life of the ?? New Genomic Techniques (NGTs) in the EU ENVI committee - Wednesday 24 January at approximately 5pm Brussels time (10 am in Chicago). I first talked about the possibilities of this rule change in Newsletter #4. The idea is for plant breeders to be able to use genetic techniques such as CRISPR Cas9 when creating new varieties for producers in the EU. These are allowed primarily because varieties created with these techniques are indistinguishable from those produced with traditional plant breeding.

The vote is going to be tight, very tight. The alignments are kind of strange the normal right vs left; conservative vs liberal labels do not apply. A group of over 1,000 EU-based scientists including 35 Nobel laureates signed a letter supporting the adoption of NGTs to create commercial crop varieties in the EU. (The title for this week's newsletter is from the last sentence of the letter.) This includes Doctors Doudna and Charpentier who won the Nobel prize in chemistry for CRISPR Cas9 in 2020.

Those opposed to the adoption of these techniques also have a letter signed by scientists. Though their letter is signed by about 20 scientists and no Nobel Laureates. However, lawmakers opposed to the relaxing of rules are pointing to this anti-letter as sufficient reason to "go back to the beginning" on the creation of these new rules.

I think that would be a mistake.

I agree with this report from The Breakthrough Institute & Alliance for Science - "How the EU Risks Falling Behind in the Bioeconomy Revolution" - The analysis pegs a €3 Trillion value on say, "no" to the new rules. This is about €300 billion per year for 10 years from 2030 - 2040.

NGT use in the EU could generate up to €171–335 billion in yearly benefits to humans and the environment between 2020 and 2040:

How to deal with the IP of new varieties

IF the NGT rule passes the Environmental committee Wednesday, there is still at least one (big) question remaining: The question of patentability for plants obtained by these new methods. The commission has demurred and delayed further investigation of this topic. And pledges to make a decision by 2026.

I suggest they just make it easy on themselves and follow the plan laid out by Euroseeds . First paragraph from their Nov. 2 blog post on the subject:

"The European plant breeding and seed sector is firmly of the view that an effective protection and practical enforcement possibilities of intellectual property rights are a precondition for the continuous innovation in plant breeding[1]. Only on the base of a fair return on its exceptionally high level of research and development investments can the industry continue to bring improved products to farmers and growers across the wide range of species and markets that it works with. "

... See, eminently reasonable.

?? Okay, grab your popcorn, let's cross our fingers that the ENVIR committee votes to approve the proposed NGT rules this Wednesday morning.

(as always any opinions belong only to the author and can not be attributed to a company, organization or government.)