Student - January 31, 2008

Euro MP worried about gm monopoly

Jan Mulder, a member of the European Parliament and Wageningen alumnus, thinks that small and medium enterprises are missing chances to develop new genetically modified crops.

Inspired by remarks made by chair of Plant Breeding, Professor Evert Jacobsen, Mulder put questions to the European Commission. In Resource 16, Jacobsen is quoted as saying that European regulations are getting in the way of new crops being developed. Mulder agrees with Jacobsen that cisgenesis – genetic modification using a gene from a crossable plant – is ‘still seriously hampered by the unwieldy European regulations’. According to Mulder, genetic variation within gm crops is likely to be limited, and they will end up in the hands a just a few big companies.