News
CRISPR GM eggs without risk assessment and labelling?
NRS Poultry wants to market genetically engineered breeding hens that have been genetically modified via CRISPR/Cas so that no male offspring will hatch. These are said to die while still in the egg due to an inherited lethal gene. The female offspring, on the other hand, allegedly develop normally and are to be used as laying hens.
EU Commission relies on unverified manufacturer information
The manufacturer assures that no foreign genes can be found in the genetic material of the laying hens and their eggs. This claim is apparently sufficient for the EU Commission to exempt the laying hens and their eggs from the legally required approval testing and genetic engineering labelling. This results from a letter from the EU Commission to the German Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) dated July 2021 that has now become known through an inquiry from the German farmers’ organisation Arbeitsgemeinschaft bäuerliche Landwirtschaft (AbL).
Discrepancy between genetic engineering regulations and consumer expectations
The EU Commission's assessment clashes with genetic engineering rules, consumer expectations and common sense. If laying hens and eggs are directly derived from a genetically modified animal they, too, are GM products. In addition, there are often adventitious side effects ("off-target effects") even with the new genetic engineering processes, so unknown genetic modifications could still be present in the laying hens. The animals would then legally be a genetically modified organism (GMO) themselves. The authorities must not rely on manufacturer information when evaluating the process, but must, of course, carry out their own comprehensive checks.
Agriculture Minister Özdemir must stand up against genetic engineering cover-up
"This attempted genetic engineering cover-up must not be allowed to pass. Consumers want to know how their food is produced. If genetic engineering is used, as it is here there must, of course, be an independent risk assessment and approval procedures. If this procedure is approved some day after this process, the use of genetic engineering must be transparently labelled on the consumer products," comments VLOG Managing Director Alexander Hissting. "The EU Commission must urgently counter the fatal impression that it is stealthily pursuing a creeping deregulation and change its stance on GM eggs. We expect German Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir to make a strong case for this in Brussels."
"Ohne Gentechnik" [GMO-free] eggs: Big market at risk
Already around 70 percent of eggs in Germany are produced without GM feed. In Germany, "Ohne Gentechnik" eggs are sold every year for more than one billion euros. This success would be seriously jeopardized if the EU stuck to its assessment and CRISPR GM eggs entered the market untested and unlabelled.
Genetic engineering is not needed to finally stop the killing of chicks. There have long been other options for this, such as dual-purpose chickens, brother rooster rearing and also methods for sex determination in the egg, which work without genetic engineering.
Testbiotech: Deregulation of new genetic engineering through the backdoor (in German)