NGT, FederBio to MEPs: "Stop the deregulation of new GMOs, the future of European organics is at risk."

FederBio, the Italian Federation of Organic and Biodynamic Agriculture, is appealing to Italian MEPs ahead of the European Parliament's vote on June 17 on the proposed regulation on plants obtained through new genomic techniques (NGT).

According to FederBio, the text currently under discussion represents a dangerous deregulation of genetically modified organisms obtained through NGT, eliminating essential protection tools such as risk assessment, traceability, detection methods, product labeling, and rules on liability in the event of contamination.

“This is a choice that endangers the right of European farmers and citizens to produce and consume GMO-free foods, both old and new, compromising market transparency and consumers' freedom of choice, ” declares Maria Grazia Mammuccini, President of FederBio .

Italy is one of Europe's leading organic countries, with 20.2% of its utilized agricultural area cultivated organically, over 97,000 companies involved, and a total economic value of €11 billion, including domestic market and exports.

Equating most varieties obtained through NGT/TEA with conventional plants without providing clear and effective rules for the separation of supply chains risks making it impossible for organic farmers to guarantee the absence of new GMOs in their production processes, calling into question one of the founding principles of organic farming and causing potentially irreversible economic, agricultural, and environmental damage.

For these reasons, FederBio strongly urges the Italian members of the European Parliament to reject the proposal and to maintain NGT within the current European regulatory framework on GMOs, provided for by Directive 2001/18/EC.

If a majority vote to reject the bill is not achieved, FederBio advocates introducing essential guarantees to protect farmers, consumers, and the organic and conventional non-GMO supply chains.

These include maintaining mandatory traceability throughout the supply chain, labeling of NGT-derived products, publishing identification and detection methods, effective coexistence measures between crops, and a clear liability and compensation regime in the event of contamination.

Priority attention is called for on the issue of intellectual property, so that patents cannot extend to plants and seeds existing in nature or cultivated by farmers.

“ We call on MEPs to support amendments that effectively limit the scope of patent protection to prevent the privatisation of naturally occurring plant traits and to strengthen legal certainty for farmers,” Mammuccini continued.

"Italian and European organic farming cannot be sacrificed on the altar of deregulation. Europe has set the goal of achieving 25% of its agricultural area under organic cultivation: it would be a contradiction to jeopardize this path through regulations that reduce protections, transparency, and citizen choice . NGTs remain, to all intents and purposes, genetically modified organisms, and organic farming does not permit their use," Mammuccini clarifies . "Eliminating essential requirements such as risk assessment, labeling, and traceability would compromise the separation of supply chains and the sustainability of agroecological and sustainable models, which make biodiversity the primary safeguard for food security, resilience to climate change, and plant diseases. We believe it is essential that rigorous risk assessments be carried out on NGTs as well, and that reliable methods be developed to identify their products, thus ensuring effective controls along the entire supply chain."