No free ticket for new methods of genetic engineering!

9 March 2015 – The German Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) issued a decision on 5 February 2015, that so-called RTDS oilseed rape manipulated with short synthetic DNA sequences (oligonucleotids) through a technology developed by CIBUS is “not a method for genetic engineering within the definition of law”. The decision means that plants made resistant to herbicides with this technology can now be grown without any further risk assessment, registration or labelling. Several civil society organisations and companies have appealed against the decision. They have further published a joint paper and are urging the German Minister of Agriculture to stop the release. Those appealing the decision are concerned about the uncontrolled spread of the plants in the environment and warn that the decision violates EU regulatory framework.

RTDS or Rapid Trait Development System involves inserting small sequences of synthetic DNA into plant cells. The DNA is altered in some detail in comparison to the plant’s original DNA. Inserting the altered DNA into the cells triggers changes in the plants own DNA, it adapts to the synthetic version and, in this case, becomes resistant to herbicides. The underlying mechanisms are not fully understood in detail. Up until now there has been no systematic risk research into plants produced by this method. According to the EU Directive 2001/18, “techniques involving the direct introduction into an organism of heritable material prepared outside the organism” have to be considered as methods of genetic engineering that need to be regulated. This means that the plants have to undergo risk assessment before any release is allowed.

The institutions appealing the decision are calling for the precautionary principle to be strengthened, for plants and animals derived from oligonucleotid technology to be subjected to systematic risk assessment and for the labelling of such products. Furthermore, they believe the cultivation of herbicide resistant oilseed rape should be prohibited in the EU, no matter how it is produced.

Contact:

Christoph Then, info@testbiotech.org, Tel: 0049 (0) 151/54638040