News

EU Commission: Eggs from CRISPR/Cas hens will not be risk assessed or labelled

4 March 2022 / Eggs and laying hens originating from transgenic hens could be marketed in the EU without these having to undergo an approval process, and without being labelled. This is the conclusion that can be drawn from a letter sent by the EU Commission to the German Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) in July 2021. The letter now was made public after a request from the German Union of Peasant Farmers (AbL).

This factsheet provides an overview of the intellectual property issues surrounding the new genetic engineering (genetic modification or GM) techniques of genome editing (commonly called gene editing), with a focus on CRISPR-Cas9.

Why conservation organisations across the world need to speak up!

Most people in the EU – including civil society organisations – are opposed to genetically manipulating food crops but unaware that the scope of genetic engineering projects has shifted radically in the past decade. With the advent of CRISPR/Cas genetic engineering has been brought to a new level while the previously used ‘gene guns’ that enabled for example Monsantos pesticide resistant corn have become quite outdated. With CRISPR many more species – and not only domesticated ones – can be genetically modified in much more targeted and profound way.

Genetic engineering in conservation?

Greenpeace challenged President Emmanuel Macron, on Sunday, the day after his visit to the Salon de l’Agriculture, on his positions in favor of new genomic editing techniques for plants which, according to the association, produce “new GMOs”.

A handful of activists first climbed the arch which marks the entrance to the Parc des Expositions at the Porte de Versailles to deploy a banner “For sustainable agriculture, no to new GMOs”, before activating smoke bombs from green color, noted an AFP journalist.

Contents:

From the Editors: Legal Issues

Group Lawsuit Filed Against TEPCO by Young People with Thyroid Cancer

Public Hearing on Genome-Edited Foods in Japan

Status of Genome-Edited Fish and Consumers Union of Japan (CUJ) Activities

Opinion on the Japanese Government’s Draft Guidelines on Non-use Labeling of Food Additives

For years, environmental groups in numerous countries have warned about the potential escape of genetically engineered animals into the wild. Now it has happened. Researchers in Brazil have published a paper documenting the escape and successful reproduction of genetically engineered (genetically modified or GM) aquarium fish in the wild. The fish, which contains a gene from the jellyfish family to make them fluorescent, has unknown consequences for freshwater systems in Brazil. This is the first documented case of a genetically engineered animal breeding in the wild.

Canada was one of the first countries to approve the sale of Glofish (trademark name) and likewise, a genetically engineered salmon now being grown in Prince Edward Island (PEI), Canada. In 2021, the conservation group Nature Canada warned the Canadian Government about Glofish escaping.

Controversial claims amended or deleted

22 February 2022 / Following an opposition filed by Testbiotech, the European Patent Office (EPO) has amended a patent on CRISPR/Cas (EP 3401400) gene scissors. The Nobel Prize laureates, Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier, are named among the inventors in the patent. The claims covering human, animal and plant cells were deleted, and intervention in the human germline explicitly excluded.

Testbiotech filed the opposition because the patent did not exclud human germline interventions or the commercial usage of human embryos, and therefore failed to fulfil legal requirements. A further reason for filing the opposition were patent claims on genetic changes in animals that would have been likely to cause suffering. According to Testbiotech, this final point still needs further clarification after the decision.

Former gene tech regulator Dr Joe Smith is now chair of the Agricultural Biotechnology Council of Australia (ABCA)

Australia's revolving door allows government ex-regulators, officials and MPs to serve the industries they once vetted as public servants. Dr Joe Smith has been appointed chair of the Agricultural Biotechnology Council of Australia (ABCA), which CropLife, the National Farmers Federation (NFF) and AusBiotech founded a decade ago to promote the agricultural biotech and chemical industries.

ABCA describes its new chair, Joe Smith, as "former national Gene Technology Regulator, Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority and Director of the Therapeutic Goods Administration Laboratories".

Producing food safely matters, it matters for the environment, welfare, farmers, consumers and the hospitality and catering industry. So it is good news that the House of Lords Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee has published a report after considering the draft Genetically Modified Organisms (Deliberate Release) (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2022.

The instrument, laid by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), proposes to remove the legal requirement for obtaining the Secretary of State’s consent, completing a risk assessment and conducting a public consultation before releasing plants with genetic modifications, which could have occurred naturally or been produced by traditional breeding, into the environment for non-marketing purposes.

A cross-party coalition of MEPs co-signed a letter to the European Commission demanding EU-funded research into the potential risks and analytical detection of genetically engineered organisms, stressing this is needed to create informed policies on the matter.

The letter sent 8 February, emphasises that the EU executive cannot just invest in EU research to advance genetically modified (GM) technology and its applications, but should also “urgently invest in EU research to deepen our knowledge of potential risks, and to enable the detection and traceability of GM products across the food chain”.