Are current EU policies on GMOs justified?

Christiansen, Andreas; Kappel, Klemens

doi:10.1007/s11248-019-00120-x

Cited by 15 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…Concerns are related both to specific risk and benefit perception [15,29]. They also relate to general moral issues about manipulating life and the ecosystem [30,31]. Noticeably, ethical concerns persist even in front of the possible role of GMO products in reducing world hunger [32].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Educated Millennials and Credence Attributes of Food Products with Genetically Modified Organisms: Knowledge, Trust and Social Media

2020

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In this paper, we investigated educated millennials’ evaluation of credence attributes in food products containing genetically modified organisms (GMO products). Our goal is to assess whether beliefs about GMO products are determined by scientific knowledge alone or if they are affected by other factors such as trust in information providers and use of social media. The focus on millennials is motivated by the increasing relevance of this social group in the public debate and by their extensive use of social media. We surveyed a sample of 215 Italian college students, confronting them with questions about safety, environmental impact and ethical issues in GMO product consumption. Using an ordered probit regression model, we found that educated millennials build their beliefs using a mix of scientific knowledge and trust in information providers. The role of the two drivers depended on the issue considered. Scientific knowledge drove beliefs in health claims, while trust in information providers was a driving factor in almost all claims. After controlling for trust effects, we did not find evidence of impact of confidence in the reliability of traditional and social media on beliefs. This result contradicts previous literature.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Educated Millennials and Credence Attributes of Food Products with Genetically Modified Organisms: Knowledge, Trust and Social Media

2020

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“…9. For a critical discussion of the moral grounds for some possible opt-out arguments, see Christiansen et al (2019). 10.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Technology Neutrality in European Regulation of GMOs

Sandin

Munthe

Björnberg

2021

Ethics, Policy & Environment

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Objections to the current EU regulatory system on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in terms of high cost and lack of consistency, speed and scientific underpinning have prompted proposals for a more technology-neutral system. We sketch the conceptual background of the notion of 'technology neutrality' and propose a refined definition of the term. The proposed definition implies that technology neutrality of a regulatory system is a gradual and multidimensional feature. We use the definition to analyze two regulatory reform proposals: One proposal from the Netherlands for improving the exemption mechanism for GMOs under Directive 2001/18/EC, and one from the Norwegian Biotechnology Advisory Board, outlining a new stratified risk assessment procedure. While both proposals offer some degree of improved technology neutrality in some dimensions compared to current EU regulation, in some extents and dimensions, they do not. We conclude that proposals for more technology-neutral regulation of GMOs need, first, to make explicit to what extent and in what dimensions the proposal improves neutrality and, second, to present arguments supporting that these specific improvements constitute desirable policy change against the background of objections to current policy.

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“…Under the CJEU ruling, also the SDN-1 and SDN-2 techniques, including CRISPR-Cas fall under the GMO Directive, while chemical and radiation random mutagenesis remains exempt according to Annex IB of the Directive 2001/18/EC. The ruling provoked a public outcry from both academia and biotech industry, which stressed that from a scientific point of view the application of GMO Directive to products created by a much more precise technique than random mutagenesis and transgenesis results in a disproportionate regulatory burden [218][219][220][221][222]. It was also noted that this ruling leads to a situation when two identical products with the same mutation resulting in, e.g., herbicide tolerance trait could be regulated in totally different ways.…”

Section: Gene Editing Versus Traditional Genetic Modificationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving Abiotic Stress Tolerance of Forage Grasses – Prospects of Using Genome Editing

Sustek-Sánchez¹,

Rognli²,

Rostoks³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Due to an increase in the consumption of food, feed, and fuel and to meet global food security needs for the rapidly growing human population, there is a necessity to obtain high-yielding crops that can adapt to future climate changes. Currently, the main feed source used for ruminant livestock production is forage grasses. In temperate climate zones, perennial grasses grown for feed are widely distributed and tend to suffer under unfavorable environmental conditions. Gene editing has been shown to be an effective tool for the development of abiotic stress-resistant plants. The highly versatile CRISPR-Cas system enables increasingly complex modifications in genomes while maintaining precision and low off-target frequency mutations. In this review, we provide an overview of forage grass species that have been subjected to gene editing. We offer a perspective view on the generation of plants resilient to abiotic stresses. Due to the broad factors contributing to these stresses the review focuses on drought, salt, heat, and cold stresses. The application of new genomic techniques (e.g., CRISPR-Cas) allows addressing several challenges caused by climate change and abiotic stresses for developing forage grass cultivars with improved adaptation to the future climatic conditions. Gene editing will contribute towards developing safe and sustainable food systems.

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Are current EU policies on GMOs justified?

Cited by 15 publications

References 42 publications

Educated Millennials and Credence Attributes of Food Products with Genetically Modified Organisms: Knowledge, Trust and Social Media

Educated Millennials and Credence Attributes of Food Products with Genetically Modified Organisms: Knowledge, Trust and Social Media

Technology Neutrality in European Regulation of GMOs

Improving Abiotic Stress Tolerance of Forage Grasses – Prospects of Using Genome Editing

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