EFSA Holds Debate on GMO Risk Assessment

A two-day conference on GMO risk assessment for human and animal health and the environment, organized by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), was held in Brussels last week. The conference brought together risk assessors from EU Member States, risk managers, and representatives from stakeholders including industry, consumer and environmental groups from all over the world. In opening the conference, EFSA Executive Director Catherine Geslain-Lanéelle emphasized the agency's role in providing independent scientific advice on GMOs. She said that "EFSA is neither pro-GMO nor anti-GMO."

Experts from EFSA's GMO Panel presented topics related to the agency's new environmental risk assessment guidelines: the assessment of effects on non-target organisms and the assessment of long-term environmental impacts. EFSA said that the guidelines aim to strengthen and streamline GMO risk assessment processes, contributing to increase their efficiency and transparency.

Views of different stakeholder were also presented. Arnaud Petit, representing farmers, said that farmers wanted to keep the option of choosing between GM, conventional or organic farming. Friends of the Earth's Helen Holder criticized EFSA's risk assessment work. Willy De Greef of Europabio, representing the biotech industry, on the other hand asked for the existing experiences of the safe use of GM crops to be better taken into consideration in EU risk assessment and called for a clearer distinction between risk research and risk assessment.

More information is available at http://www.efsa.europa.eu/EFSA/efsa_locale-1178620753812_1211902898772.htm