This is the second part of a news article by Daily News Hungary. The entire piece can be read here.

Hungary’s opposition to new genomic techniques does farmers and consumers a disservice By Bill Wirtz The European Commission recently announced new legislation that will structurally grant authorisation for cultivating gene-edited plants in the EU. Until this day, so-called NGTs (new genomic techniques), despite having been discovered by a prominent European scientist, could not be used on European farmers because of outdated legislation dating back to 2001. However, an alliance of Green parties in the European Parliament, as well as both Hungary and Austria, are set to oppose this authorisation.

In a communiqué dating back to July, the Hungarian government clarified its intentions: “The GMO-free domestic strategy will therefore not change. Negotiations at the European Union level have begun, where our country continues to stand up for what is defined in the Basic Law, i.e. the GMO-free Hungarian agriculture.” The wording of the entire statement is ill-advised, not merely because it was released just a little over a week after the Commission announcement. It is hardly giving the government in Budapest enough time to consider the scientific literature associated with the issue. More importantly, the government is advertently correct when it says that Hungary will remain GMO-free, because NGTs are not GMOs.

Continue reading at Daily News Hungary.