Puchta Holger
Department of Molecular Biology, Joseph Gottlieb Kölreuter Institute for Plant Sciences, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Fritz-Haber-Weg 4, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany.
aBIOTECH. 2023 Dec 28;5(2):231-238. doi: 10.1007/s42994-023-00130-8. eCollection 2024 Jun.
Some 20 years ago, the EU introduced complex regulatory rules for the growth of transgenic crops, which resulted in a de facto ban to grow these plants in fields within most European countries. With the rise of novel genome editing technologies, it has become possible to improve crops genetically in a directed way without the need for incorporation of foreign genes. Unfortunately, in 2018, the European Court of Justice ruled that such gene-edited plants are to be regulated like transgenic plants. Since then, European scientists and breeders have challenged this decision and requested a revision of this outdated law. Finally, after 5 years, the European Commission has now published a proposal on how, in the future, to regulate crops produced by new breeding technologies. The proposal tries to find a balance between the different interest groups in Europe. On one side, genetically modified plants, which cannot be discerned from their natural counterparts, will exclusively be used for food and feed and are-besides a registration step-not to be regulated at all. On the other side, plants expressing herbicide resistance are to be excluded from this regulation, a concession to the strong environmental associations and NGOs in Europe. Moreover, edited crops are to be excluded from organic farming to protect the business interests of the strong organic sector in Europe. Nevertheless, if this law passes European parliament and council, unchanged, it will present a big step forward toward establishing a more sustainable European agricultural system. Thus, it might soon be possible to develop and grow crops that are more adapted to global warming and whose cultivation will require lower amounts of pesticides. However, there is still a long way to go until the law is passed. Too often, the storm of arguments raised by the opponents, based on irrational fears of mutations and a naive understanding of nature, has fallen on fruitful ground in Europe.
大约20年前，欧盟出台了关于转基因作物种植的复杂监管规定，这实际上导致了大多数欧洲国家禁止在田间种植这些作物。随着新型基因组编辑技术的兴起，有可能以定向方式对作物进行基因改良，而无需引入外源基因。不幸的是，2018年，欧洲法院裁定，此类基因编辑植物应像转基因植物一样受到监管。从那时起，欧洲科学家和育种者对这一决定提出了质疑，并要求修订这项过时的法律。最终，经过5年时间，欧盟委员会现在公布了一项关于未来如何监管新育种技术生产的作物的提案。该提案试图在欧洲不同利益集团之间找到平衡。一方面，与天然对应物无法区分的转基因植物将仅用于食品和饲料，除了注册步骤外，完全不受监管。另一方面，表达抗除草剂特性的植物将被排除在这项监管之外，这是对欧洲强大的环境协会和非政府组织的让步。此外，为了保护欧洲强大的有机农业部门的商业利益，基因编辑作物将被排除在有机农业之外。然而，如果这项法律未经修改就通过欧洲议会和理事会，将朝着建立更可持续的欧洲农业体系迈出一大步。因此，很快就有可能培育和种植更适应全球变暖且种植所需农药量更低的作物。然而，在这项法律通过之前，仍有很长的路要走。在欧洲，反对者基于对突变的非理性恐惧和对自然的天真理解提出的争论风暴往往很有市场。
