Freedom of choice requires labelling and traceability of all GMOs

As stake­hold­ers in the agri-food sec­tor, we call on EU pol­i­cy­mak­ers to ensure the free­dom of choice and rights for con­sumers, sup­ply chain oper­a­tors, farm­ers and breed­ers by uphold­ing manda­to­ry labelling of new GMOs obtained by new genom­ic tech­niques (NGTs) as well as trace­abil­i­ty across the entire val­ue chain.

The use of NGT-GMOs in agri­cul­ture calls for a rig­or­ous, sci­ence-based reg­u­la­to­ry frame­work to pro­tect con­sumer rights and the NGT-GMO-free con­ven­tion­al and organ­ic food sys­tems

Lead­ing sci­en­tif­ic bod­ies, con­sumer advo­cates and farmer and envi­ron­men­tal organ­i­sa­tions stress that labelling and trace­abil­i­ty of NGT-plants and prod­ucts are essen­tial requirements—not option­al measures—for main­tain­ing trans­paren­cy, account­abil­i­ty and free­dom of choice for con­sumers, farm­ers and the food sec­tor across the whole sup­ply chain.

Remov­ing trace­abil­i­ty and labelling of GMOs under­mines not only the fun­da­men­tal rights of 450 mil­lion EU-cit­i­zens, but also the integri­ty of GMO-free agri­cul­ture. With­out legal­ly bind­ing rules on labelling and trace­abil­i­ty, the spread of NGTs will com­pro­mise the pos­si­bil­i­ty to main­tain GMO-free food production—starting from the seed lev­el.

Find the joint state­ment here

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