Today, the European Parliament failed to protect farmers, consumers and breeders in its final vote on new GMOs. A majority of MEPs decided to exclude the new generation of GMOs (so-called new genomic techniques) from all types of safety checks, traceability mechanisms and labelling, refusing to even bring patent safeguards back in.
Concretely it means that farmers, consumers or food processors have lost their right to choose the food they want to grow, buy and eat, as new GMOs will be hidden from them. The Parliament also sided with the European Commission and Council in granting indefinite rights for the biotech industry to grow and market new GMOs without any monitoring. If they cause harm to people, farm animals or nature, no one can be held accountable.
Mute Schimpf, food campaigner at Friends of the Earth Europe commented:
“This is a dark day for European citizens. EU decision-makers, from agriculture ministers to parliamentarians led by European People’s Party and the far-right, chose to prioritise the profits of a few biotech giants over the rights of those that feed us, over our rights as consumers, over nature protection.”
Moreover, without patent safeguards, corporate giants like Bayer, Corteva and BASF will be able to claim ownership of even natural seeds and products obtained from classical breeding by patenting traits that can also occur naturally or through classical breeding methods. This will not only block small and medium-sized breeders from accessing these crucial resources, but also allow these corporations to further expand their market control.
The only upside: so far, these new genetically modified plants have largely disappointed outside of Europe, and will not be ready for marketing in the next years.
