About the topic
Since the invention of agriculture, humans have selected plants to improve their crops. The advancements of genetics and biotechnology have led to more sophisticated techniques of selection. There is public debate about whether advanced techniques (including genome editing) are safe, beneficial and ethical.
This explanatory note provides an updated scientific overview of new agricultural biotechnologies compared with existing techniques.
This note informed public debate, in particular the Commission conference on Modern Biotechnologies in Agriculture in September 2017. The advisors subsequently published their statement of the regulatory status of gene-edited products
Advice and related documents
- Explanatory note - New techniques in agricultural biotechnology (April 2017)
- Summary - New techniques in agricultural biotechnology (April 2017)
- News: Commission's top scientific advisers publish explanatory note on new techniques in agricultural biotechnology
- Scoping paper - New agricultural biotechnologies (November 2016)
Contact: EC-SAM@ec.europa.eu