TRUE OR FALSE. Is it true to say that NGTs are “not new GMOs” and “that there is no genetic transformation”, as Valérie Hayer maintains?

While Anses, the French health security agency, has just released a new report on new genomic techniques (NGT), the head of the Renaissance list for the Europeans, Valérie Hayer, affirms that “these are not new GMOs ” and “there is no genetic transformation”.

ANSES has published two reports on the subject in recent months, and the European Parliament has just legislated on the issue. New genomic techniques (NGT), these new methods for producing more resistant plants, particularly for tomorrow’s food, are causing a lot of reaction. Guest of franceinfo, Monday March 11, the head of the Renaissance list for the Europeans, Valérie Hayer, affirmed that NGT “are not new GMOs, there is no genetic transformation”. True or false ?

NGT “allows the genetic material of an organism to be modified”

It’s wrong. With new genomic techniques, there is indeed a genetic transformation. These new methods “allows the genetic material of an organism to be modified”, we can read on the website of the Ministry of Agriculture. NGTs have been developing in laboratories for more than twenty years: researchers rely on an invention, CRISPR-Cas9, molecular scissors, which make it possible to precisely cut, inactivate and modify pieces of DNA. The objective is to produce more resistant plants in the face of diseases or climate change.

Plants, fruits and vegetables produced using these techniques are considered genetically modified organisms (GMOs), since a decision by the European Court of Justice in 2018. “Organisms obtained by mutagenesis are GMOs, within the meaning of the GMO Directive, to the extent that mutagenesis techniques and methods modify the genetic material of an organism in a way that does not occur naturally”, writes the Court. Since 2018, plants from NGT have therefore been subject to the same rules as GMOs.

What is the difference between plants from NGT and GMO?

But there are many differences between plants from NGT and GMOs. In the case of GMOs, researchers introduce a foreign gene into the organism in question. We are talking about transgenesis. In the case of NGT, researchers modify the genome directly, in a targeted manner (mutagenesis), they modulate the expression of genes by DNA methylation, or they transfer a gene from the same species (cisgenesis).

NGT supporters therefore refuse to equate the two techniques and call for different regulations. In this context, at the beginning of February, the European Parliament approved a text which relaxes the regulation of certain plants from the NGT. In detail, the text provides for two categories of plants produced by NGT: on the one hand, plants “which could also be obtained naturally or by traditional breeding techniques”, which will therefore be governed by relaxed rules, and other plants from NGT, which cannot be found in nature and for which the regulations remain the same as for GMOs. The text still needs to be approved by member states.

ANSES calls for caution on NGTs

But at the same time, in France, the National Health Security Agency (ANSES) published two reports on new genomic techniques. In the first, the agency analyzes the European regulation and calls for clarifications. It also calls into question the equivalence made between certain plants from NGT and conventional plants, which can be found in nature. In its latest report on the subject, published on March 6, ANSES calls for caution on NGT, and invites each plant to be analyzed on a case-by-case basis.