With the green light for the new regulation on genomic techniques-the so-called NGTs, New Genomic Techniques, the acronym by which the industry has chosen to rename new GMOs-18 member states, including Italy, have effectively signed off on the end of mandatory labeling for a broad category of genetically modified foods. Voting against were Croatia, Hungary, Austria, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia. Belgium, Bulgaria and Germany abstained.
“This is not only bad news that puts consumer freedom of choice at risk,” comments Enrico Amico, president of Demeter Italy, “but also the sad fact that most European governments have ignored the will of citizens who have spoken out en masse against this deregulation.” Demeter played a central role in the alliance of 52 organic and biodynamic associations, which launched an international campaign coordinated by Biodynamic Federation Demeter International (BFDI), available in 16 languages, involving more than 500,000 people. Kokopelli, Friends of the Earth Europe, Bioland, Naturland, Solidagro, Odin, NaturaSì, and many other European stakeholders in the sector have joined the campaign, entitled“Blacked-out Ingredients – Label Genetically Modified Food!” The mobilization has activated hundreds of thousands of consumers in just 3 months in 18 EU countries to demand the protection of food transparency.
What the regulation stipulates
The heart of the problem is technical, but its consequences are far from abstract. The legislation approved by the Council divides plants obtained by new genomic techniques into two categories. Category 1 NGTs are those with fewer than twenty modified DNA sequences and are considered “equivalent to conventional plants”-for them no mandatory risk assessment, no traceability, no labeling. Category 2 NGTs include all others, those with more complex modifications. The first category, exempt from controls, accounts for about 94 percent of all NGTs currently in development. In practice, almost all new GMOs would escape the rules that protect consumers today.
And patents on the genetic characteristics of plants would be allowed: a not insignificant detail that further shifts control over seeds-and thus food-in the hands of large agribusiness corporations.
“There is no reason why they should be exempt.”
“The campaign we have launched,” adds Enrico Amico, “is a clear and unified response from the European biodynamic and organic community to a regulatory proposal that threatens decades of hard-won gains in food transparency. If the new GMOs are really as promising as claimed, there is no reason why they should be exempt from labeling and traceability requirements. Clarity does not hinder innovation, it strengthens it. We call on the European Parliament to defend this principle in the May vote.”
Polls, after all, speak for themselves: more than 85 percent of European consumers want all GMOs to be labeled in food. A percentage that has held steady for more than two decades, through technological changes, food crises, and pressure from industrial lobbies.
The node of traceability
There is another aspect of the debate that is likely to fall by the wayside, but which Demeter and allied organizations consider diriment: without mandatory labeling, there can be no traceability. And without traceability, the entire supply chain loses the ability to control what it produces and what it sells. This is not just a problem for end consumers: it is a structural problem for anyone working in the organic and biodynamic sector, where the integrity of the production process-from seed to finished product-is both an ethical value and a commercial condition.
Deregulation of NGT, in this sense, would not only affect the right to information: it would affect the very possibility of practicing alternative agriculture to intensive, monoculture farming.
A question of power
At the bottom of the label dispute is a broader question: who decides what goes into our food? Who controls the seeds with which the Planet is fed? Biodynamic agriculture is based on principles-respect for seed integrity, biodiversity, the farm as a living organism-that come into profound contradiction with the logic of genetic uniformity promoted by new genomic techniques.
Now the European Parliament has the floor. On May 18, MEPs will vote on the final text of the legislation. If approved, the regulation will enter into force 20 days after publication in the Official Journal of the European Union, opening up new market opportunities for the agro-industry and permanently closing the possibility for consumers to know whether they are buying a product made from laboratory-modified seed.
Meanwhile, the Blacked-out Ingredients campaign continues, online and offline, in all 18 European countries involved. Those who want to participate can join through the campaign’s WhatsApp, Telegram or Messenger channels, or write directly to MEPs.
