June 17, 2026 | Source: Navdanya International | by Seed Freedom

With its final vote on the regulation of plants produced by New Genomic Techniques (NGTs), the European Parliament has chosen to dismantle core safeguards that have protected Europe’s biodiversity, farmers and citizens for decades. By treating many gene‑edited plants as “equivalent” to conventional ones, the new framework weakens risk assessment, traceability and labelling, and undermines people’s right to know what is grown in their fields and served on their plates. This is not a neutral, technical adjustment: it is a political decision to prioritise corporate interests over the precautionary principle, food sovereignty and democratic control of our food systems.

Industry and supportive governments portray these new GMOs as “natural‑like innovations” and claim they are essential for climate resilience and productivity. Yet independent science and on‑the‑ground experience tell a very different story. Gene‑editing tools such as CRISPR can create unintended genetic changes, chromosomal instabilities and metabolic disruptions that go well beyond what occurs in conventional breeding, with consequences that may only become visible in the medium or long term. At the same time, the spread of herbicide‑tolerant and insecticidal crops has already fuelled resistant weeds and pests, locked farmers into chemical‑intensive models, and contributed to the erosion of agrobiodiversity.