2024-03-05 20:01:15
What has become of the expertise of the National Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety (ANSES) on plants resulting from new genomic techniques (NGT) – or “new GMOs”? The expert report supervised by the agency was finalized on December 11 and the formal opinion of ANSES, based on this report, was signed on January 22 by its director general, Benoît Vallet, and immediately transmitted to the government . ANSES had planned to publish the report and the opinion at the beginning of February – according to a source close to the matter, publication was blocked on “political pressure”.
The date was important: the agency’s expertise was to inform the choice of MEPs, who voted on February 7 to open the way under conditions for these “new GMOs” in Europe. Despite this vote, the European Commission’s plan to relax regulations is today stalled due to lack of agreement between member states, and postponed until the next mandate. Tuesday March 5, ANSES had still not made anything public, did not give an explanation for these delays, made no comments and assured that everything will be published soon.
The opinion of ANSES, that The world was able to consult, is in direct opposition to the position defended on the subject by France in Brussels, as well as with the position mainly expressed by Renew MEPs in the European Parliament. This was to exempt certain NGT plants (carrying less than 20 genetic modifications and meeting sustainability objectives) from health and environmental risk assessment, traceability and labeling.
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Conversely, ANSES calls for an assessment of the risks to health and the environment of these new plants, on a case-by-case basis. She also judges ” important “ the implementation of a monitoring plan after each release on the market, both on the environmental impacts of these “new GMOs” and on their socio-economic effects.
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This opinion endorses and summarizes over around thirty pages the major conclusions and recommendations of the experts formulated in a complete report – to which The world did not have access. The expertise was launched in January 2021, upon referral from the ministries of ecological transition and agriculture. Three specialized expert committees from ANSES supervised the assessment carried out by around twenty scientists from public research organizations or universities. The latter endeavored to assess the necessity and methods of assessing the health and environmental risks of NGT plants, but also their possible impacts on agricultural sectors and economic players.
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