European Plant Biotech in the Balance
These are pivotal times for plant biotechnology in Europe. The new European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Vyentis Andriukaitis, is not due to take up his role until the 1st November but he already knows that the current rules on genetically modimied crops create conflicts between the commission itself and the member states. Those rules have seen only two GM crops licensed to be grown commercially in the EU in almost 15 years: Monsanto’s insect resistant MON810 maize and BASF’s Amflora potato, of which the later was withdrawn from commercialisation in 2012. Read more