‘Steadily increasing’ GMO acceptance in Europe fuels efforts to revise biotech restrictions

| | August 21, 2020
Screen Shot at PM
Credit: fi-compass
This article or excerpt is included in the GLP’s daily curated selection of ideologically diverse news, opinion and analysis of biotechnology innovation.

Since 1996 till 2018, the global area cultivated with GM crops has increased 113-fold, making biotech crops one of the fastest adopted crop technology in the past decades. In the European Union, only two countries still cultivate one available transgenic crop event on minor hectarage. Moreover, the number of notifications for confined field trials has dramatically dropped in the last decade. All these are happening while the EU legislation on GM crops has come under severe criticism.

The percentage of EU citizens concerned about the presence of GMOs in the environment has decreased from 30% (in 2002) to 19% (in 2011), while the level of concern about the use of GM ingredients in food or drinks has decreased from 63% (in 2005) to 27% (in 2019). The steadily increasing acceptance of the EU citizens of GMOs in the environment and food, as it was recorded by Eurobarometers, should additionally ease the way and support a positive change of the legal framework that regulates the GM crops’ testing and commercial cultivation in the EU.

Related article:  Viewpoint: Anti-GMO movement—and label demands—lose steam under Republican administration

In contrast with the supportive opinions of the EU experts toward the use of GMOs, the attitude of the majority of the European citizens has long been suggested to remain a reluctant and skeptical one. In [the] EU, citizens’ views of a variety of topics are regularly surveyed by the Eurobarometer studies commissioned by the European Commission to monitor the evolution of public opinion over several years, using uniform questionnaires and large numbers of interviews to obtain representative data.

A different series of special Eurobarometers have recorded the evolution of the concerns expressed regarding the use of GMOs for farming or as food ingredients, and the percentage of EU citizens concerned about the use of GMOs has substantially decreased over the last two decades. This officially recorded trend supports, and also argues for, an immediate change of the present, not-fit-for the purpose, GMO regulatory framework to meet EU citizens’ expected benefits which GM crops could offer.

Read the original post

Outbreak
Outbreak Daily Digest

podcasts GLP Podcasts More...
Biotech Facts & Fallacies
Talking Biotech
Genetics Unzipped

video Videos More...
stat hospitalai ink st x mod x

Meet STACI: STAT’s fascinating interactive guide to AI in healthcare

The Covid-19 pandemic underscores the importance of the technology in medicine: In the last few months, hospitals have used AI ...

bees and pollinators Bees & Pollinators More...
mag insects image superjumbo v

Disaster interrupted: Which farming system better preserves insect populations: Organic or conventional?

A three-year run of fragmentary Armageddon-like studies had primed the journalism pumps and settled the media framing about the future ...
dead bee desolate city

Are we facing an ‘Insect Apocalypse’ caused by ‘intensive, industrial’ farming and agricultural chemicals? The media say yes; Science says ‘no’

The media call it the “Insect Apocalypse”. In the past three years, the phrase has become an accepted truth of ...

infographics Infographics More...
breastfeeding bed x facebook x

Infographic: We know breastfeeding helps children. Now we know it helps mothers too

When a woman becomes pregnant, her risk of type 2 diabetes increases for the rest of her life, perhaps because ...

GMO FAQs GMO FAQs More...
biotechnology worker x

Can GMOs rescue threatened plants and crops?

Some scientists and ecologists argue that humans are in the midst of an "extinction crisis" — the sixth wave of ...
food globe x

Are GMOs necessary to feed the world?

Experts estimate that agricultural production needs to roughly double in the coming decades. How can that be achieved? ...
eating gmo corn on the cob x

Are GMOs safe?

In 2015, 15 scientists and activists issued a statement, "No Scientific consensus on GMO safety," in the journal Environmental Sciences ...
glp profiles GLP Profiles More...
Screen Shot at PM

Charles Benbrook: Agricultural economist and consultant for the organic industry and anti-biotechnology advocacy groups

Independent scientists rip Benbrook's co-authored commentary in New England Journal calling for reassessment of dangers of all GMO crops and herbicides ...
Screen Shot at PM

ETC Group: ‘Extreme’ biotechnology critic campaigns against synthetic biology and other forms of ‘extreme genetic engineering’

The ETC Group is an international environmental non-governmental organization (NGO) based in Canada whose stated purpose is to monitor "the impact of emerging technologies and ...
report this ad report this ad report this ad

Trending

News on human & agricultural genetics and biotechnology delivered to your inbox.
Optional. Mail on special occasions.
Send this to a friend