France sees crops developed using gene-editing techniques as different
to genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and opposes a European Union
court decision to put them under strict GMO regulations, the country�??s
agriculture minister said.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled in 2018 that mutagenesis,
among so-called New Breeding Techniques (NBT) based on targeted editing
of genes, fall under rules applying to GMOs that incorporate DNA from a
different species.

The decision was welcomed by some environmentalists who have long
opposed GMOs as a threat to ecosystems, and criticized by seed makers
and scientists as penalizing Europe�??s agricultural research capacity.

�??NBTs are not GMOs,�?� Agriculture Minister Julien Denormandie said in an
interview published by several farming news outlets, including Agra
Presse on [January 15].

CRISPR crops �??aren�??t GMOs,�?? France says, challenging EU�??s strict
gene-editing regulations | Genetic Literacy Project
[geneticliteracyproject.org]