Fifty years after the famous 1975 Asilomar biosafety conference — a moment of self-reflection and self-regulation of molecular biologists— a group of historians and bioengineers organized a three-day conference in the same place to reflect and learn for the future. Naomi Kosmehl of Save Our Seeds got hold of a grant to attend this exclusive event.

On 6 May, final negotiations will begin on the deregulation of plants engineered using new genetic modification (GM) techniques, such as CRISPR/Cas. During so-called trilogue talks, the European Parliament, Council of Ministers and European Commission will finalise an agreed version of the proposed Regulation on plants obtained through "new genomic techniques" (NGT).

Proposals to relax EU GMO laws could violate international law, according to a new legal opinion. The planned EU law on "new genomic techniques" (NGT) may be incompatible with the Biosafety Protocol of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.