When the wind of polarization blows, reality runs the risk of turning into a huge stadium in which fans, moved by the current, oppose each other and every action of individuals is determined by the wave of the group.
The picture describes a much more pleasant context than it seems to the most squeamish eyes – an orderly scenario, despite the apparent and deliberately contrived turmoil, in which positions are staggered and there is no possibility of confusion. Nor for understanding the phenomenon, let alone evolution, we might add.
With due distinctions, this is the situation in which biotechnology for the agrifood supply chain finds itself to date. On the one hand incentivized by community and local development programs, on the other penalized by conflicting policies.
New genomic techniques: is the excitement over yet?
Lest we abandon the metaphor of watertight compartments, the European Parliament’s recent adoption of its mandate for negotiations with EU governments on the Commission’s proposal on the “Regulation on New Genomic Techniques (NGT)” still divided opinion: 307 votes for, 263 against, 41 abstentions. The regulation, as it is known, exempts “Assisted Evolution Techniques (Tea)” from most of the safety requirements for genetically modified organisms.
As also emphasized after the vote by rapporteur Jessica Polfjärd, who also called on member states to take an early position, the standard was clearly envisioned and written with the goal of making the food system more sustainable and resilient by developing improved plant varieties that are resistant to climate change and pests, correlated with higher yields, and less dependent on the use of fertilizers and pesticides.
But let’s take it slow… To date, the text approved by the European Parliament is paradoxically at a standstill.
NGT products already among us
There are already many well-documented examples of the application of new genomic techniques that are potentially functional in reducing waste and CO₂ emissions, including by obtaining better products. Techniques that the European Food Safety Authority (Efsa) has already commented on in an assessment published last July 11.
Case in point, the case of bananas that do not brown, produced in the Philippines, which are estimated to reduce food waste and emissions along the value chain by more than 25 percent.
The world’s most exported fruit, however, is seeing its position jeopardized by climate change, intensive cultivation, the annihilation of biodiversity (there are a thousand or so varieties but very few are marketed, almost only the Cavendish) and the massive use of pesticides. Not to mention the threat posed by Fusarium tropical race 4 (Tr4), a soil-borne pathogenic fungus that attacks plant roots causing so-called Panama disease (Fusarium wilt).
Initiatives to protect crops of this fruit are trying in many ways to take advantage of scientific innovations to develop sustainable solutions in this regard.
In the near future, other NGT plants are expected to be commercialized, including alfalfa with modified nutrient composition, soybean with modified fatty acid composition, a wheat variety with higher fiber content, herbicide-resistant rice, and canola with more stable pods. In Europe, experimental market entry has been requested for NGT corn and broccoli, and studies are currently underway on NGT potatoes and NGT wheat.
Corteva (DowDuPont/Pioneer) and Bayer/Monsanto alone, from the height of their leadership position (they control 40 percent of the world seed market) and extensive investment opportunities, have already applied for more than 1,500 NGT plant patents globally.
The sad short story of Crispr rice
A team from the University of Milan led by Vittoria Francesca Brambilla (associate professor in the Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences) was the first research group in the country to apply for authorization to grow a rice variety modified with Crispr/Cas9 that is resistant to a fungal disease, opening up new perspectives for agricultural genetics in our country.
The editing involved three deletions in the coding sequences of as many genes that influence susceptibility to Pyricularia oryzae, the fungus responsible for rice bruson, a globally devastating disease for which there are a limited number of agrochemicals with significant ecological impact. Authorization was granted by the Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (Ispra), and the trial began with planting in the spring at a farm in Mezzana Bigli, near Pavia.
Long story short: On June 20, a handful of troublemakers uprooted the seedlings, cutting them off and throwing them into the water. Italy’s first experimental field of rice obtained with Tea was thus destroyed.
