Science for Democracy supports the Grow Scientific Progress European Citizens’ Initiative.
The goal of this ECI is to clarify EU rules regarding new breeding techniques. These are modern technologies, such as crispr, which allow to precisely edit DNA in a quick and efficient manner. Applied to agriculture, such techniques allow to grow more crops using less land, less water and less chemical products. But although the environmental benefits are clear, many environmentalist groups are opposed to it. This has resulted in an implicit ban, with new breeding techniques considered Genetically Modified Organisms, which are illegal for direct human consumption in the EU.
The ECI aims at rectifying this, in particular by focusing on the crop itself rather than the technique used to produce it.