The Netherlands
December 22, 2009

This report describes consequences of new plant breeding techniques for the environment and food and feed safety. The new plant breeding techniques considered in this report share as common feature that they all make use of a genetic modification step, somewhere in the production of improved plant lines. The aim of this genetic modification is to test plants for specific characteristics, to facilitate breeding, to add genes or alleles that have been isolated from the same species or to make small changes to native genes. Because of the involvement of a genetic modification step, all these techniques fall under the European Directive 2001/18/EC.

One common feature of the new plant breeding techniques is that they all lead to end products (plants or plant parts) that are free of genes that are foreign to the species. So, in the end only genes that were already part of the gene-pool of the species will be present in its genome. This means that end products of the new breeding techniques, in principle also can be achieved using conventional plant breeding techniques, but usually in a much longer time frame or with much more difficulties.

In Europe, the cultivation, trade and use of food and feed of any genetically modified crop is subject to EU regulations. A safety assessment of the genetically modified crop is part of the admission procedure. This assessment for environmental, food and feed safety is a timeconsuming and costly (on average €6.8 million for a full assessment (EU)) procedure. Although the new breeding techniques have potential for rapid improvement of crop species, the required safety assessment may obstruct the development of such new crops. This is especially the case for ‘small’ or ‘orphan’ crops like many vegetable, fruit and ornamental crops. To be able to bring the new breeding techniques to practice, there is a great demand for modernization of the EU regulations for genetically modified organisms. This report describes a technical-scientific approach to assess possible consequences of new breeding techniques for the environment and human & animal health, and provides information that is important for consideration of adaptation of the EU regulations.

This report was commissioned by COGEM. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of the authors. The contents of this publication may in no way be taken to represent the views of COGEM.

Report

Website: http://www.cogem.net

Published: December 22, 2009