Assessing the Environmental Impact of GM Plants

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) recently held a two-day Scientific Colloquium in Parma, Italy on the Environmental Risk Assessment of Genetically Modified (GM) plants. Discussions focused on the latest developments in genetically modified organisms (GMOs), environmental risk assessment methodology and practices; and other issues including environmental fitness, effects on non-target organisms, long-term and large scale environmental effects, broader environmental considerations and the assessment of risk versus environmental benefit.

Participants of the colloquium agreed on the current case-by-case approach to environmental risk assessment, while expressing that a more specific guidance may be needed for the assessment of the potential impact on non-target organisms in terms of design and statistical power of testing. Statistical modeling tools are also considered useful to predict potential effects that GM plants might have over time and when cultivated on a larger scale in Europe.

Read the press release at http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/press_room/news/wns_scientifc_colloquium.html.