SAFE regrets legislative steps to make "new GM" techniques free from mandatory requirements applicable to other GMOs and warns that this will mean the end of organic food as we know it

SAFE – Safe Food Advocacy Europe, a European consumer organisation specialised in food policy – is calling for the protection of organic food in the European Union at the start of this year’s BIOFACH, the world’s largest trade fair for organic food and agriculture.

SAFE says it regrets recent legislative steps to make new genomic techniques (NGTs, new GM techniques) free from mandatory requirements applicable to other GMOs and warns that this will mean the end of organic food as we know it.

SAFE’s Deputy Director Luigi Tozzi said: “Organic food production is at serious risk under the new legislation, because the measures in place to separate organic food production from food derived from new genomic techniques will disappear soon. This means that in the future, products sold as organic may contain traces of NGT crops, restricting consumer choice and undermining the very concept of organic food production. This is a very serious threat for an important sector trusted by millions of European consumers.”

SAFE believes that the EU must make sure that all NGTs are fully traceable and clearly labelled, as is the case with other GMOs.

Tozzi said: “It is hard to understand why the EU is turning its back on organic food production, after decades of consistent support under the Common Agricultural policy. In the past decade, European consumers have spent between €50 and €55 billion annually on organic food products, a testimony to their success and appreciation. The new legislation can damage this forever.”