20 | New Scientist | 21 March 2020
CROPS that have been grown and
eaten in France for years may soon
become illegal. Farmers will no
longer be able to plant them and
shops won’t be able to sell them.
At least, that is what is supposed
to happen later this year. But
because it will be virtually
impossible to know which
varieties are forbidden, it is far
from clear how things will pan out.
“I think it’s going to have a real
impact on agriculture and plant
breeding in France,” says plant
biologist Johnathan Napier at
Rothamsted Research, UK. It will
affect others, too, as France is the
largest seed exporter in the world.
This extraordinary state of
affairs stems from a 7 February
decision by France’s top court,
the Council of State. It ruled that
plants created by mutagenesis –
the process of inducing genetic
mutations – should be subject
to the same European Union laws
that cover genetically modified
organisms (GMOs).
Although these gene tweaks
might sound similar, they have
conventionally been seen as quite
different. Organisms constantly
mutate because of mistakes that
happen when DNA replicates as
new cells are made or when it is
damaged. Genetic varieties also
develop when species interbreed,
producing hybrid offspring.
By selecting mutant and hybrid
plants with desirable properties,
early farmers transformed wild
species into the domesticated
varieties that we eat today.
Modern bananas are a long way
removed from their wild relatives
genetically, for instance.
From the 1950s, breeders began
to intervene more. They exposed
seeds to radiation or toxic
chemicals to induce mutations
by chance, hoping to get lucky
with desirable traits. This process,
called random mutagenesis, hasbeen used to create thousands
of plant varieties grown today,
including many wheat and
rice strains.
In the 1980s, breeders went a
step further. They started creating
plants with properties such as
herbicide resistance by adding
new genes. Because these genes
often came from differentorganisms such as bacteria,
these GM crops were seen as
being different from those
produced by mutagenesis.
Public concern about the
safety of such GMOs led to many
countries introducing laws to
regulate them. In 2001, an EUUsing new breeding techniques,
companies began to create crops
with the same traits as GM ones,
such as herbicide resistance,
but which weren’t subject to
GM regulations. By area, about
a third of the sunflowers grown
in France are herbicide resistant,
for instance.
In 2015, eight anti-GM
organisations in France, including
the Peasant Confederation –
farmers who favour traditional
methods – called for the
government to ban these
herbicide-resistant crops.
When it refused, they appealed
to the French Council of State,
claiming that these crops should
count as GM under EU law.
The case was referred to the
European Court of Justice, which
in 2018 ruled that all organisms
obtained by mutagenesis should
indeed be regulated as GMOs
under the 2001 directive. The
court said the directive clearly
excluded the methods of random
mutagenesis used since the 1950s,
but that member states were still
“free to subject such organisms”
to the directive’s regulations.
This had no immediate
consequences, because it is up
to member states to apply the
ruling. But in February, the
Council of State ordered the
French government to withdraw
approval for certain varieties.
“The French government
is legally bound to implement
the decision of the Council
of State,” says Guy Kastler,
a founding member of the
Peasant Confederation.
Which varieties will be
withdrawn is still far from clear.
The French ministry of agriculture
didn’t respond to New Scientist.Many French-grown
sunflowers have new
genetic traitsGenetic modificationOV
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A French food fight
The highest court in France has ruled that many common crops are illegal.
Enforcing the law will be near impossible, reports Michael Le Pagedirective defined GMOs as those
“in which the genetic material
has been altered in a way that
does not occur naturally”.
Under this directive, genetically
modified plants have to undergo
stricter testing than other new
plant varieties before they are
approved, and most products
made from them must be labelled.
Meanwhile, plant breeders were
developing techniques that blur
the line between random
mutagenesis and adding new
genes. For instance, if you know
which gene needs to be altered,
you can mutate plant tissues
growing in a dish, sequence
thousands of cells to find
those with the right mutation
and use them to grow plants.
It is laborious, but quicker
than waiting for thousands
of plants to grow.“ Early farmers grew
mutants, transforming
plants into the varieties
we eat today”