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Welcome to a new episode of EU Watchdog Radio.

My name is Hans Van Schare media officer at Corporate Europe Observatory, also known as CEO.

And in this episode we'll be talking about food and agriculture,

meaning how our food will be grown in the future and which technologies will be used.

A few decades ago, some agrochemical companies started selling patented seeds created with genetic modification or GMOs.

They are now trying to promote a next generation of GMOs using new genetic editing techniques like CRISPR CAS.

But those companies do not want these GMOs to be called GMOs

because in Europe those have a very bad reputation and track record.

The first generation of GMOs did not live up to the expectations that were created back then.

Biotechnology in agriculture has so far a disastrous legacy.

Introducing GMOs has boosted pesticide,

notably glyphosate, and has led to a further intensification

and increased monoculture of cash crops, harming ecosystems,

and it has, for for example also not delivered

on drought resistant plants. And now the biotech lobby wants to repeat the same scenario.

The agrochemical biotech industry claims that the new gene editing techniques can provide solutions to farming problems,

including the challenges posed by climate change, pests and diseases.

Many of those risks attached to the old-style GMOs also apply to gene-edited GMOs, and they are also presenting new risks.

I quote from a recent publication of the Green Group in the European Parliament called

Gene Editing, Mids and Reality.

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