Since the ruling of the Court of Justice of the EU of 2018, which placed genome-edited crops under the Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) legislation, the scientific community has passionately debated the future of these new breeding techniques.
A new ALLEA (All European Academy) report Genome Editing for Crop Improvement presents the state of the art of scientific evidence in the field and explores paths to harmonize EU legislation with recent scientific developments, while particularly considering relevant ethical and societal considerations.
The report summarizes the discussions between scientific experts, policy-makers and civil-society organisations at a public symposium in Brussels in November 2019, where ALLEA and the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts KVAB invited relevant stakeholders and the interested public to assess and discuss the impact of the ruling on present research and developments in genome editing for plant breeding.
Stefan Jansson, member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences participated in the conference and held a lecture: What can genome editing deliver for agriculture?