During the April 25th meeting of the Parliament’s committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, Stella Kyriakides, the EU Commissioner of Health and Food Safety, reiterated the interest of the Commission in landing a proposal for plants produced through New Genomic Techniques (NGTs). Asked about the timeline, she assured that the goal was still to table it in June and avoid further postponements.

In her closing remarks on NGTs, Commissioner Kyriakides emphasised the argument that plants produced through NGTs have the potential to support sustainability. She also reiterated the Commission’s commitment to pursuing the goal of reducing pesticide usage by 50% by 2030, indicating that the two objectives are aligned.

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To determine what is in the pipeline for NGTs concerning those species, Food Watch looked at what was published in scientific literature to provide a comprehensive overview.

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In published research, 161 traits in development can be found. As highlighted in the figure below, of those, 16.3% concern biotic stress tolerance. And of that 16.3%, only a portion concerns species of interest for European agriculture. Moreover, most of the biotic stressors concern bacteria and viruses, which are not fought with pesticides.

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