Roberto Ruiz de Arcaute, agricultural researcher and member of the Spanish Society of Organic Agriculture and Agroecology (SEAE), received at the end of last week a meeting call from the European organization IFOAM Organics Europe. The aim was to analyze the new European regulatory framework for the registration of seeds and the obtaining of new varieties of plants, which was expected to be approved this week. Finally This Wednesday Brussels opened the doors to New Genomic Techniques. «They warned us of great pressure to reject or amend the text already agreed upon last year. There are two regulations that run in parallel, that of NGT and that of seeds. NGT are materials derived from genetic editing, new, and one thing cannot be separated from the other. Regarding the seeds, there were regulations in each country.
From his organization and as an expert in seed production, he assumed that Brussels would open the door to these new varieties, which have been discussed for ten years and have been a cause of protest and support. Organizations like yours have been against opening the door to these seeds without taking into account the precautionary principle. “We do not know what influence it will have when they are released into nature and we believe that it does not make sense to promote this type of seeds without their side effects being proven, but both the Commission and the Council consider that type 1 NGTs are not problematic.”
But what are NGTs? Josep María Casacuberta, researcher at the Agrigenomics Research Center of the CSIC and president of the GMO panel of the EFSA (European Food Safety Authority), explains the difference with what we know with transgenics. «European legislation on what we know as transgenics began in 2000 and regulated something that at that time seemed completely different from what had been done until then: transgenics, which are those organisms that have a gene that has been transferred from another organism through molecular biology or genetic engineering techniques. That is why the legislation speaks of new combinations of genetic material that have been obtained using recombinant DNA techniques. At that time, what we know as Random mutagenesis, that is, taking plants, embryos or plant tissues and subjecting them to X-rays, neutrons or other radiation, or to chemical agents, to see what new varieties appeared from there. It is a technique that has been used since the 1950s and with which around 3,500 varieties have been obtained. of wheat, fruits (nectarines, tangerines…) and many other plants that we eat. As it was already used and there was a lot of experience, they were left out of the legislation.
And what are type I and type II? «The new genomic techniques, and specifically gene editing, consist of introducing mutations, but instead of doing so randomly through radiation, cellular machinery is used to introduce a cut in the genetic information, in the DNA, at a specific point. that we can direct. The cellular machinery is then left to repair the DNA, sometimes introducing mutations. These mutations are the same as those that appear spontaneously or those that are induced by On the one hand, NGT I include those plants to which a number of up to 20 modifications have been introduced into the genome, because it is considered that these changes could occur spontaneously in nature. They are considered equivalent to plants obtained through conventional breeding and would be outside the transgenic legislation. “There would be no need to go through the entire process of a detailed risk analysis.” Those that have more than 20 changes will remain within the legislation as GMOs.
GMOs allowed
Transgenic plants are understood to have an introduced part of exogenous DNA in their DNA. The most common technique, says the CSIC researcher, is through a soil bacteria that “infects the tissues and introduces its genes, making the plant work for it in some way.” In Europe, Spain is the only country that grows a variety of transgenic corn, MON-810. France, in the nineties, approved the cultivation of transgenic corn and soybeans, but about seven or eight years ago it revoked the norm and although Europe limited cultivation, has approved the import of 150 different GMOs, because “in Europe we do not produce enough soy and corn to feed livestock,” recalls the CSIC technician.
Seed Privatization
For their defenders, these new techniques democratize research and the placing on the market, by small companies or public research groups, of varieties tolerant to heat or water stress and certain pests, and could even reduce the need for fertilizers.
Its detractors, and herein lies another crux of the discussions in Europe during these years, believe that The door is opening to greater privatization of seeds and living organisms, so in the future farmers will have to pay even for traditional varieties. «We are seeing companies patenting specific genes associated with characteristics of varieties that, in principle, can be found in nature. Companies consider that, since they are included in an NGT that they have developed, they are patentable. The European Patent Office is opening up this possibility and does not provide the number of patents that have been applied for or provide information in this regard, but It is estimated that there are more than 70 pending applications. It is a privatization that comes a bit through the back door. The genes that they are patenting are present in many traditional varieties and possibly in wild relatives of these crops,” says Ruiz de Arcaute.
From Biovegen, its director Gonzaga Ruiz considers that “there is actually patent legislation that has been in force for decades and there is legislation on the protection of plant varieties. The Regulations never wanted to talk about these things and in reality it does not change anything. You can patent the process, as long as it is not essentially biological, and then there is the product obtained, the plant, and especially the derived products, which are protected but with the Plant Breeding Law of the 60s.
Another detail that the SEAE warns about is that «These type 1 products will go on the market unidentified. According to the rule, as it is proposed, there will not be a label that indicates whether it comes from an edited crop. “You will only know what the farmer grows, but, as consumers, we have the right to choose what we want.” Furthermore, he insists that “the legislation implies greater privatization in a sector that is already being privatized. «Obtaining varieties and multiplying seeds are in the hands of very few companies, which increasingly act by selling a technological package of inputs (specific herbicides or insecticides) for each variety. The standard prevents, for example, the development of NGT type I with resistance to herbicides, because that is already considered too obvious, but we are moving towards that trend. This makes farmers dependent.
A geopolitical question
The seed is becoming a geopolitical issue and new genomic techniques are accelerating the battle on the world stage. Not in vain, China already accounts for 75% of published seed patents. These NGTs have waited ten years for the European decision, but now Brussels considers them as vital as AI or defense policies. They already have specific legislation, different from that applicable to GMOs, in Argentina, Canada, the USA, Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil, Paraguay, Chile, Uruguay, Peru, Japan, Australia, India, the United Kingdom, Nigeria, Ghana or Kenya.
Besides, There are several products on the market, such as soybeans with a modified oil composition that makes them healthier. «In the case of transgenics we had very defined characteristics, which were above all resistance to insects. In the NGT the range is wider; Issues that were difficult to achieve through transgenics can be addressed, such as composition changes. In Spain there is a project to obtain wheat with a lower gluten content, so that it can be more suitable for celiac sufferers,” says Casacuberta. And he adds: “If we do not have tools to adapt our varieties, it will be difficult for European farmers to compete with other countries.”
Heat resistant varieties
►The approval of these new genomic techniques has been welcomed by the agri-food sector, which sees that Europe is moving in the right direction even if it arrives later. Above all because of the possibilities it opens up. «They are very precise, cheap and fast tools, and they allow us to address a multitude of characters of agronomic and commercial interest, for example, resistance to drought, salinity, excess water, high temperatures, pests, pathogens. They also have the quality of addressing other characters from a nutritional point of view, with bioactive substances, antioxidants, crops that, for example, are low or do not have gluten content, although commercially they are not so massive, they are of interest to many people,” says Gonzaga Ruiz de Gauna, director of Biovegen. The manager recalls that these NGT crops were already beginning to enter from other places in the world (in Argentina they were already approved in 2015) and that “we have been importing crops that are transgenic (because they introduce different DNA) on a massive scale into the EU for decades, for feed, for example.”
Regarding the labeling, it states that “The fine print of the regulations remains pending and the one that will establish the classification criteria. Once it is determined what an NGT-I is, these will be equivalent to a crop obtained by conventional genetic improvement methods, and will not need to be labeled. The law says that it has to be labeled down to the farmer. “With the consumer we must do education about these crops and their possibilities.”