Last week, the European Court of Justice decided that gene editing – the mechanism by which genetic characteristics can be enhanced or diminished without the introduction of outside genetic material – should be strictly limited in Europe. The technology is fundamentally different from genetic modification (GM), which usually introduces new genetic material to confer specific desirable traits. The GM technology has revolutionised plant production across the agricultural world but the EU has refused to embrace it. The gene editing technology promised to be much more acceptable to a scientifically sceptical European public but the latest decision by the European Court seems to have put paid to its adoption in Europe.

The rich will normally favour the status quo and Europeans, as a population, spend so little on the raw material going into their food that they can easily afford to block anything which can be construed as posing a risk. In addition of course, the European population is actually declining so again, with very small families, parents will be reluctant to try anything that strays from the traditional. If such an attitude had existed in the past, we would have no means of controlling the potato blight, which gave us the famine or the fungicides and other treatments, which have transformed world food supplies and human wellbeing.

But of course, ultimately, it is up to the political systems to recognise the realities. If European politicians and consumers don’t want to allow any change in food production practices, then it is hypocritical in the extreme to allow imported products produced with products or by techniques forbidden in Europe.

European policymakers have at least been consistent in not allowing hormone-treated beef to be imported into Europe. It is inconsistent to allow gold-plating of EU standards that have to be observed by EU farmers while allowing them to be ignored and undermined by imports. This is a fortress Europe-type argument. The real answer is for politicians to legislate for a system that allows European science to advance and European farmers to have access to new and safe technologies.

This latest ruling cries out for a change in the law.

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EU deals body blow to gene-editing technology

The challenges get more numerous and bigger