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Berlin.
Genetic engineering is inconceivable. What has been created for millions of years, man can today with cuts in the DNA in his change of direction. This holds tremendous potential, but also meets fear and rejection.
The European Union put the creations made by the man in a tight legal corset in 2001. The so-called release directive should prevent the uncontrolled spread of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). It has prescribed strict risk badessments for the cultivation of processed maize or rapeseed. On the shelves of supermarkets, consumers should be able to see if food has been produced in the laboratory.
Technically, a lot has happened since then. With the Crispr / Cas9 gene scissors, or simply Crispr, researchers can now produce changes in plants that can not be distinguished from natural mutations.
It is therefore unlikely that the products of such interventions fall under the 2001 directive, manufacturers are convinced – because they could theoretically come from nature. Until now, the EU has avoided creating a legal framework for new techniques such as gene scissors.
On Wednesday, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) decides whether genetically modified plants will be excluded from comprehensive risk badessment and labeling – experts believe that it is likely.
Genetic scissors can be used to incorporate foreign genetic material 19659007] In fact, the case seems clear. Because what could be more a genetic engineering than a chisel? In fact, the European directive states that GMOs are "an organism […] whose genetic material has been modified in a way that is naturally impossible by crossbreeding and / or natural recombination".
Canola and maize, which are used by non-alien genes, for example by bacteria, to defend against pests, clearly fall under this definition.
The Crispr case is more complex. Even with gene scissors, it is quite possible to incorporate foreign genetic material into plants. But processes within a plant DNA can also be set in motion.
"I'm going to give you an example," says molecular plant geneticist Michael Metzlaff: "Color plays a key role in tomatoes – now a variety of tomatoes has been grown over the years for a particularly beautiful red It has lost its original good taste.With Crispr, the genes responsible for the taste can be reactivated. "
Consumers may be frightened by pointing to the packaging
So, does this not genetic engineering? "At least, that should not be regulated like that," says Metzlaff, "because the result is the same as if I'd been raised in the garden. How I came to this conclusion is fundamentally irrelevant. "
On behalf of the pharmaceutical company Bayer, the scientist is engaged in exchange with scientific institutions.For his company, the decision is decisive, it is one of the GMO market giants.As many breeders, seed producers and the German Farmers Association, he hopes that the ECJ will release gene scissors from the EU legal corset
In cases like tomato tasteless, where researchers could produce a near-natural mutation, Long-term risk badessments on GMOs in addition to those required by food law would be omitted.The fearful German consumer would no longer be discouraged by a reference to packaging – a fact that makes GMOs virtually unmarketable in this country.
Treatment with chemicals used for about 100 years
"There are also other forms of mo genetics, which are allowed in Germany without additional risk badessment and labeling, "says Metzlaff. In this so-called mutagenesis, mutations in the plant genome are triggered by means of chemicals or electromagnetic radiation. The researchers then examine directly in the DNA if the desired mutation has developed. With the appropriate organizations will continue to work.
"Conventional mutagenesis is exempt from the EU directive on the grounds that the procedures have proved safe over a long period of time," says Professor Tade Matthias Spranger, who works at the Faculty of Law of the University of Bonn genetic engineering.
In an badysis for the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation, the lawyer came to the conclusion in 2015 that organisms treated with Gen scissors still fall under the existing European directive. Treatment with chemicals or radiation would have been used for about 100 years. This criterion would not meet the scissors of genes. "The long-term effects have not been explored until here," says Spranger
The New Varieties Defy Disease, Heat, and Water Deficiency
Proponents of the exemption for Crispr would like legal equality with mutagenesis. Among other things, because it is undesirable mutations, to a lesser extent or to a lesser extent. "Accurate" is usually the word of choice. "It makes me listen," says Spranger. "In humans, and up to now in animals, such interventions are prohibited because of incalculable effects.How can the same methods be stable and accurate in plants?"
The situation of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) of Julia Klöckner (CDU) is much more euphoric. The so-called new farming techniques such as gene scissors held potential for innovation that could complement conventional breeding, says the ministry's website. It could be developed new varieties that defy diseases, heat and lack of water and were anti-allergenic. With conventional methods of genetic engineering, cultivation of these plants was previously expensive and expensive – also because of the regulation of genetic engineering.
The labeling of products should be discussed
"With an appropriate regulatory framework". The question of whether and how consumers can detect whether a product has been handled with gene scissors should be discussed with other Member States if the ECJ decides accordingly. There are several options – which are not described in detail.
It remains to be seen whether this vision can be achieved with the coalition partner. "The SPD wants a security check for new techniques as well as a labeling of the products that flow from them." This also applies if the ECJ decides that it is not covered by the law on engineering genetics, "says Carsten Träger, rapporteur of the SPD parliamentary group on genetic engineering.
Such labeling should be recreated, believes Spranger." The labeling of products according to another directive, for example as a new food (Novel Food), is almost impossible if a change is not detectable. "
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