Webinar The Sustainability of European Food Systems - Day 1 - Part 1

[Music]

good afternoon to you all

and welcome to the webinar farm to fork

strategy

and the impact on the fruit juice

industry

my name is waterlox and i'm the

secretary general

of the european food juices industry

association

we are since 1962 the representative

association

defending the interest of the fruit

juice industry and this ranging from

fruit processes to those bottling the

juice

i will be in the coming two days your

host and this webinar

is co-organized with sgf international

sgf international has been set up in

1974

by the industry itself to monitor

the quality and the authenticity of

juices

the farm-to-fork strategy provides

or aims to provide a healthy and

nutritious diet

to consumers stemming from a fair and

sustainable

food processing juices

are all natural agricultural products

and so sustainability is in our dna

so i'm very interested to listen to all

the presentations from the speakers

after every presentation there will be a

possibility

to have some questions for this

please go to slido you can

scan with your mobile or your tablet

take your

key qr code for this slider

or just follow the link on your laptop

now i'll give the floor to dr alejandra

solis

she is the science and technical manager

of argn

and she will be moderating this session

of today

alejandra the floor is yours

thank you guter for the kind

introduction 2020 has been a year full

of challenges in all sectors around

the world food industry has not been the

exception

the pandemic has put us all into

rethinking

how we're going to address future

challenges that will come with covered

19.

and together with these new challenges

there are also important changes that in

one way or the other

will modify the way that the food sector

and in particular juice industry

will have to deal when it comes to raw

materials and

specifically the fruit and vegetables

that our industry uses

in particular with these changes we'll

have to be aware

of how to be compliant with the new

strategy that the european commission is

implementing

that is the farm-to-fork strategy

that as it is conceived has fundamental

targets that the food sector will have

to comply with

these fundamental targets contemplate

farming practices that at the same time

will be intrinsically related to the

common agricultural policy

that ultimately will support for the raw

materials produced

become sustainable one of those targets

is doesn't mention

pesticide reduction by 50 percent

as well as the implementation of the

concept of ipm

also known as integrated pest management

together with the use of digital farming

technology

however the question is how the food

sector

and in particular the providers of the

raw materials to use

industry will faces how juice industry

will face these changes that

farmers will need to implement in the

raw materials we consume

for the manufacture of this industry

these questions will be answered today

and tomorrow by the experts that we will

have

in this today webinar we hope you

enjoyed this event

that agn and sgf international have

prepared for you

and with this brief speech i would like

to introduce the agenda for today

that will comprise four topics that will

include

digital farming dr doris mcquart program

officer

dji research and innovation european

commission

gmo dr leslie g furbank

chair in sustainable agriculture school

of biology university of leeds

biological counter products to come back

past dr

jericho senior scientist plant pathology

wagon

university and research and consumer

demand for organic agriculture

eric gall deputy director and policy

manager informed organics europe

and now i would like to introduce our

first speaker dr doris mcquart

dr mcquark works for the european

commission and the directorate general

for the agriculture and royal

development

since july 2019 she is focused on the

digitalization

of the agricultural sector and rural

areas and at

research and innovation she completed

her phd in agricultural policies at the

martin luther university

hail quittenberg in germany and holds a

master's diploma in environmental

planning

from the technical university of munich

she also holds positions

at the european environment agency the

german

permanent representation the german

federal ministry of food and agriculture

the european network for rural

development contact point

the germany-based late needs institute

for agricultural development in central

and eastern europe the center of rural

economy in newcastle uk

and the european academy in bulsana

italy

she has experiences in the

implementation of the common

agricultural policy

in several member states including

romania

italy and germany she served as experts

in policy design agriculture and rural

and regional development in projects

commissioned by the world bank

yunet and fal and with this impeccable

resume

i give now the floor to dr mccoy

thank you so much alejandra dr mccarrick

can you just

make active your camera so we can start

with the presentation

and if so then we can start now with the

presentation of dr makar

apparently there are some technical

problems

but please do start

good afternoon everybody can you hear me

yes perfect

yes many thanks for uploading this

presentation

thanks for the kind introduction and i

think you already provided the first

overview of the farm for fox strategy

and as announced i would like to focus

today on the role of digitalization

and digital technologies and farming

will play in the present

in the implementation of the farm to

fork strategy

as it is the first presentation this

afternoon

i would like to provide also a rough

overview

of the farm to surgery in general and

its implications and its approach i

think that it's important to have the

context

and then to follow up on the discussion

could you please switch to the next

slide

thank you so the phantom fork strategy

is an inherent part of the green deal

the big announcement by the european

commission

to make europe the first continent

have 2050 to be climate neutral

and the farm drop strategy you know

agriculture

as a big land user and we all as

consumers

have has a key role to play in achieving

the objectives

of the european green deal

and also on the sustainable development

goals

looking beyond because you as

organization have a global perspective

so it's one stepping stone

to achieve both but more concrete as a

farm to fog strategy

if we go to the next slide please thank

you

then we will see that sustainable food

systems

and for sustainable societies are at the

heart of the first

farm-to-fork strategy and what's

important to note here

is the integrated approach integrated in

so far

that we do not only foster on

environmental sustainability

but also on social sustainability and

economic sustainability

and try to link it in one strategy

so you will find here the different

details

what the different dimensions mean but

if we go

already to the next slides then i can

detail a little bit more

at the current stage if we analyze our

food system

and and would like to achieve those

three dimensions and the objectives that

just

touched up and then we will find that we

have many challenges

from the consumer's perspective and

social sustainability

we have for instance a problem as a

global perspective

with as regards health and healthy

nutrition

so on the one hand we have populations

where we have too little food

we have not even put security achieved

on the other side we have to have the

challenges in other societies

of obesity so there's a discrepancy to

achieve

a healthy food system to the same time

it has also to be a fair food system

fair in that regards

that for instance the farmers have fair

prices

that the consumers have fair prices

and that it goes hand in hand and it's a

balance system

and then as a key and at the heart you

see it here in the middle of the slide

the sustainability dimension

sustainability

is not only climate change which is

often linked to the green deal as a

keyboard

but also to reduce emissions and

preserve biodiversity so that is a rough

overview for sure

for all the continents you could outline

different challenges to the food system

and go into more detail

and further information is also provided

in the

at the end of the presentation if we

could go to the next slide please

to sum up here are four core elements

from the forbes strategy it's the

climate footprint which is fostered to

be reduced

it's a global transition and i think

that is important to emphasize here

today

as we have here a global community so

it's

not only about achievements in europe

but to achieve

a global transition towards

sustainability

from farm to fork and also as you well

know

food chains are global and i will go

into detail how that could potentially

be achieved

important in the context of

digitalization is

tap into new opportunities innovation

will be a key

to achieve the objectives and linking

them all together

for instance economic and sustainable

objectives

and overall resilience for the overall

system

is an important indicator for linking

the three dimensions

social environment and economic together

next slide is

so what does it mean concrete i will not

go into detail here i have only 20

minutes

but you can see here some examples how

it's

fixed and what is the intervention logic

and how

detailed operational objectives are

actually defined so it's not

only staying at the headlines but the

farm to fork strategy

becomes more concrete and

operationalized

so and at the end in the box you can see

food security and food safety

are at the cornerstones of our food

system

and the never be compromised so that is

a

one link of going along with the

implementation

of the farm to park strategy and the

next slide

please so what is key for the strategy

you often have policy ambitions in

qualified

statements we want to achieve this and

that

you're only providing a direction so for

the final

fox strategy it's important to know that

we have

25 targets to be reached quite soon

in 2030 and as in the introduction was

already mentioned by alcanera

reduction of 50 percent of the overall

use

of chemical pesticides it's a

clear cut objective and is to be

achieved

the same was similarly we have 25

targets for fertilizer use

and reuben girls and also for organic

farming

so for sure a strategy is not legally

binding in the european union

but it's up to achieve those targets

because

policies will be able evaluated

and policy makers will be measured on

the effectiveness of such a strategy

so next slide please

and and one click further please on the

presentation

yes perfect you see here that

to recap we have an integrated approach

linking

social environmental and economic

dimensions

from the farc palm to the fork so

meaning from the farmer to the consumers

and you as food processors are somewhere

in the middle and play a key role

as intermediaries and overall

to achieve the objectives in the

strategy

you need a toolkit and a portfolio of

instruments

and the strategy itself lists

some instruments but not for all

objectives

it actually tells how they can be

achieved in the best way

so you can use legislation you can have

financial incentives education advisory

services

research and innovation and research and

innovation for instance will be key

for digitization procurement and so on

so there needs to be a portfolio of

instruments

next slide please

so um here i will only be detached often

because they're very european union

specific

so there are two concrete announcements

in the strategy

once the legal native framework for

sustainable food systems

which is forthcoming in two years ago

and linked to the

covet crisis we it's also the congruency

plan

stand for 2020 bonus so they are less

relevant

at the moment for the specific proposed

of this presentation today so we will

go ahead to the next slide please

yes thanks so here you see already a

list of actions to ensure sustainable

food production

i think linking for the european context

to the common agriculture policy the

self-evidence

because it's the main program to support

agriculture of the agriculture sector

then it was already mentioned the

sustainable use of pesticides effective

the view of regulation organic sector as

such

and the integrated nutrients management

was also mentioned and you will have

hear more about it in the next days

so i would google yes exactly and one

step further

also if you look at the different

actions

to ensure sustainable food production on

the second point

not all of them are relevant for you

personally

but if you look for instance in the

right corner on the top

the initiatives for enhancing

cooperation for the primary producers

that could be for instance the key

element which is also of interest

for your sector next slide please

and here also you see it's a portfolio

of actions

which is linked to the industry retail

and hospitalization

so quite relevant for you and i only

pick out one of them

the proposal for the provision of the

legislation on

food contact materials it's a concrete

proposal

which is might directly concern you

for instance next slide please

yes and here's the same as the weight of

actions and we cannot go into detail

here

but for the promotion of the shift for

healthy and sustainable diets

foods may play a key role and food juice

you will see it depends on what type of

use will you will produce

but for sure the review of the schools

scheme for instance may play a role here

or also the proposal for that vat

weights to be adapted and to make it a

targeted

might also be important next slide

please

next slide please yes

and that is an important element i think

for your organization

so if a food system is global

then initiatives in the european union

ideally

have also a promotion of a global

transition

so it's about international cooperation

and supporting the development

countries in their transition to thought

sustainability

is only one stepping stone but it's also

about

including of ambitions and trade

agreements

or setting international standards for

setting

and so to acknowledge them in the

european union

or environmental aspects can be taken

into account

and assessing the requests for import

tolerance

for instance if it comes to pesticides

and

certain thresholds there and also

labeling regimes

can play a key role in promoting trade

and what is accepted by the consumers or

acknowledged by

consumers in the european union so even

if some

elements might not be binding in future

it's also about consumers choice for

instance

next slide please

yes and if we now here go to a specific

topic of this presentation

the implications of digitalization how

can digitization and digital farming

help to achieve the objectives of the

farm-to-fork strategy

so as said we have theoretically a

portfolio of instruments available

to make the strategy and transpose it

into practice

so it can reach from legislation from

dedicated policy measures and dimensions

for instance

supporting investments it can be the

adaptation of

existing policy programs for instance

the common agriculture policy

could be targeted with selection

criteria for

support projects and so there's a range

of portfolio of instruments and if you

look now more completely on digitization

next slide this

and yes all the elements please you see

here

that at the agriculture policies and the

agriculture sector

is in the european union not only framed

by the wind here

we have also headlines of vision like

the digital age

economies that work for all and then as

of a operational level we have

not only the common agriculture policy

but also provides europe which is a

research and innovation program

and the digital europe program next

slide please

all these tools offers opportunities to

promote

digitalization and in farming digital

technologies can

as you probably know helps the farmers

to work more precisely and efficiently

they can also increase the sector's

competitiveness

and sustainability to the same time

which is important if you want to follow

the integrated approach of the farm to

fork safety

at the social level they can make the

job of a farmer more attractive

to younger generations and promote the

sustainability at the social level

of the sector they can also help along

the food chain

to increase the transparency so as they

are in the middle of the food chain this

is also

quite important and they can support

all types of farming no matter whether

you're organic or conventional

digital technologies can help small

and large ones to perform better next

slide please

now let's look at digitalization

in the common agriculture policy for the

post-2020

period so we don't have to go into

detail here

one step further in the presentation

phase but what is important to know

that the enabling potential of

digitization

has also been acknowledged in the

proposal for the common agriculture

policy

as enabler to achieve the other

sustainable

development objectives manifested in the

com

proposal or the legal proposal for the

common agriculture policy

so that tells us also already that

digitization

can be key rule next slide please so

if we regard digitalization as one

enabling tool

then that i already said they can help

to sum up economic and sustainable

ambitions

so the same time the effectiveness of

digital technology is good

goes hand in hand with the data which is

fed into digital technologies

and other technologies can help so that

we have to think

together next step please

but at least for the european union

context and here i have to say

that may vary from continent to

continent a little bit

but what we see for europe is that the

potential

as at the moment not fully exploited

for instance due to a gap in

infrastructure particularly broadband

awareness among farmers on digital

technologies

and sometimes also about a lack of cost

effectiveness

this is particularly a problem for small

farmers

but also for larger ones and finally

there's also a lack of trust among

farmers

in the operators in technologies but

also in data sharing which is essential

for making

some technologies happen next slide

please

no coming back to the one precise target

namely

the reduction of chemicals and

pesticides then we can clearly say

okay precision farming can help here

to reduce amount because of the more

tailored application

and adapting to specific environment

conditions for instance

but then on the other hand we still face

the challenge that we cannot simply say

okay that farmer is applying digital

technologies

and what then we cannot automatically

say

pesticides are reduced by for instance

20 percent

because he is using those technologies

we still have face a challenge

to really assess the impact digital

technologies have in reducing

emissions next slide please

there are other challenges as well so

it's not only about the lack of ability

to monitor and benchmark

benchmark on the one hand what we can

achieve in the impact

but also the data to know how many

farmers

are actually using and not only buying

which technologies so what is the uptake

and what is the deployment in the

agriculture sector

what at least for the european union

context

we still face the challenge of avoiding

a gap

in a digital divide between small

and larger farmers and at the beginning

we mentioned

okay the farm farm-to-fork strategy is

about three dimensions

also social bonds and

the european commission has as one

headline ambition

economy that works for all meaning such

a digital gap

needs to be considered as well thinking

about small

and large farmers if you want to go

ahead with digitalization

and finally we also have a social

dimension

if we make a change in farming we also

have to think about the rural

communities

so that does not only apply to europe

but also to the other continents

because automatically if we have more

digitalization

frequently we may not always have a cut

in positions

but the requirements for the positions

in the agriculture sector to be said

are more management-like if we have for

instance more dictatorial technologies

in the farming process so all together

for the digital translation

research and innovation will be still a

key feature

to for instance achieve more cost

effective solutions

next slide is

so for exalting the full potential of

digital technologies

for europe at least it's the need for

strengthening is important

support the development of digital

skills on the side of the farmers but

also of the advisors

enabling the exchange of information and

experience and i think that is also

globally very important to have the

exchange between continents provide

advisory services

facilitate investments so and here we

can also think

beyond a single farm it might also be

about cooperative investments

in digital infrastructure

providing data so data as

input to digital technologies and help

to facilitate data sharing

and here you may observe other european

initiatives

helping to do so for instance the

commitment to establish a common

agricultural data space

and promoting targeted research and

innovation

and here also most european

programs are open also for third

countries that is maybe noteworthy to

achieve

common approaches next slide please

for europe i would like to point to one

declaration the so-called dictator

declaration and more precise is the

declaration of cooperation

on a smart and sustainable digital

future

for european agriculture and rural areas

so in that declaration the potential the

enabling potential of digital

technologies

to achieve sustainability related

objectives

but also competitiveness of the farming

sectors and of rural communities

is acknowledged and most member states

of the european union

sciences declaration to join efforts

to establish the digital and data

infrastructure

and to work together and to push

in the design of the common agriculture

policy but also of the digital euro

program

and the research and innovation program

provides in europe

thoughts those objectives to tailor for

instance research and innovation

to solution for small farmers which is

currently not covered

by the private sector research and

development or to have a common

infrastructure for agriculture data

so it really points to complete actions

and initiative

one node foresee one is for instance

testing experimentation facilities

for ai and you may now think about okay

how is that related to the objectives of

the farm-to-fork strategy

but in such testing and experimentation

facilities

test for instance digital technologies

which are based on artificial

intelligence to reduce pesticides

and they can develop standards certain

measurements

what emission reduction potential can be

achieved

then there's a clear link between those

interventions

and the objectives of the farm to fork

strategy

the same applies to so-called digital

innovation hubs

which are intended broadly speaking

please don't cite me on that

and i have sent you the link at the end

of the presentation

to link innovators in

digital technologies with specific

sectors and to the end users at the

ground

for instance a digital innovation hub

may foster the agri-food sector

and develop blockchain technologies to

increase the transparency

along the food supply chain so and so

far that is quite important

to make the implementation of the farm

to forks hd rolling

and that is a puzzle with different

pieces on parcels

it's not only about hard requirements

but also about

capacity building in this case and this

presentation

on digitization so and

i think what is important in the

declaration

is the cooperation between member states

and i think the same applies

to the farm-to-fork strategies all

stakeholders

need to cooperate together to achieve

the common objectives

next slide please and for that

next slide i would like to thank you for

your attention

and look forward to the discussion

thank you so much dr markhard to give us

an insight on the future

legislative initiatives as well as the

challenges ahead

in implementing those technologies we

have now the possibilities to have some

questions and answers

and please do use the slido you can

access slider through your

scanning the qr code with your tablet or

your mobile

or just follow the link on your internet

alejandra you have the floor to moderate

the question and answer

thank you thank you guter er yeah one of

the very first

questions we have um as part of the

detect technologies uh

we know uh that the use of drones for

aerial spring pesticides will be used in

europe

um how will we cope with this use of

drones

if they have not been yet approved for

use in the sustainable use of pesticides

directive

okay i think that's a very specific

question

and that is um not only about the

targets of the farm to fork strategy i

said the farm to fork strategy

is a strategy and not a legal instrument

and i cannot

make now a commitment for the individual

actions

in the forthcoming legislation so

meaning um that is not settled yet

and actually targets two pieces or

fields of legislation on the one-handed

drones

and on the other hand the forthcoming

legislation on the use of pesticides

so both are announced so revision or the

legislation on drones is um already in

the process of being revised

so um that's not up to me to decide on

that

what i can tell you i mentioned the

research and innovation program

and that for instance their activities

are ongoing

to assess the risk of drones in relation

to pesticides to better be able to say

okay what is possible

and what is not possible so it's clearly

on the agenda it's ongoing but probably

also in the forthcoming research and

innovation program

so that i can say from my side but i

cannot say okay

how the parliament council and

commission decide on the first time in

legislation

thank you another question uh

is uh we hope this involves

collaborations with initiatives

worldwide

showing that there are already many

working solutions

yes i think and that is my personal

opinion that i think the international

cooperation and the exchange of

experience is quite important

but if you look for instance exchange of

experiences particularly

um in the field of innovation support

for instance who who rise in 2020 the

research and innovation program

where we have for instance projects

tailored to africa

to only name one example and agriculture

and digitalization

are digital innovation hubs in africa

where knowledge transferred from europe

is adapted to the context in africa and

so digitization in the agri-food sector

is transferred

but the same applies for sure for other

continents

and you also have to learn a lot so for

instance

approaches develop in africa can be

relevant in the context

of climate change for europe at some

pace there are several examples

and i think that is a key role to be

considered

thank you and last question quickly

digitalization will bring benefits to

farmer

farmers however it is well known that

rural areas are pending for connection

to

internet something that actually has

been recently also observed by

others

how the european commission will address

to implement the digitalization

strategies

as part of the farm to form strategy

yes and i think it's a top priority

not only in the palm to fox strategy but

also another headline ambition of

digital age is clearly outlined for the

commission its priority

and for instance member states are

required to have 5g

implementation plans ready and revised

by the end of the year

there are different investment tools

potentially supporting member states to

all

out broadband so in the field of rural

areas it's not only about the common

agriculture policy

where member states can apply for

funding

to rule out government we have also a

connecting european facility

where you have more large-scale

investments and

where boyfriend can be funded and also

as it regards the development of new

technologies

to make for instance remote solutions

available to let's say

remote islands or small villages or

let's say fields which are very far away

where you would like to apply precision

farming

then we have also researched an

innovation ongoing

to allow for instance for remote 5g

solutions

in an area which is otherwise hardly

covered with infrastructure so i think

also here we have a portfolio of

instruments

it's not always in the hand of the

commission but in the hand

of the member states but the european

union programs try to enable member

states to make the necessary investments

thank you thank you dr macquarte then we

go back to the studio now

thank you alex thank you dr markhard i'm

sure that there will be many more

questions coming

during the webinar itself and maybe we

can take them at the end of this webinar

all those questions that are still there

now let's go to the third speaker

the floor is yours our second speaker is

the emeritus professor dr leslie

fierbank

dr fierbank is an agricologist

concentrating on how land use and

management affect the environment

especially in the uk he has recently

retired from professor

in sustainable agriculture at the

university of leeds

and is a member of the essa gmo panel

and chair of the fsa working group

on the environmental risk assessment of

chin dry modified insects

he was a member of acre the uk advisory

committee on releases to the environment

from 2019 to 2015 before joining nasa in

2018

he is former independent director of the

red tractor

uk food assurance scheme and with this

impeccable resume

i would like to give the floor to dr

fierbank

good afternoon and it's great to be here

to talk to you about the potential role

of gmos in fruit juice production

uh my name is les ferbank i'm from the

university of leeds

just about retired and

and my background is that i'm an

agroecologist i'm not a geneticist

i'm not a specialist on the food chain

on fruit fruit juice on

gmos in terms of how they're actually

produced genetically

an ecologist by background and i've done

quite a lot of work over the years on

the environmental risk assessment of

gmos

and as a result of that i'm currently a

member of the fcgmo panel

in other words i'm one of the people

that helps formulate the scientific

advice for the

decisions about the regulation of gmo in

europe

i must emphasize that the talk doesn't

represent

the views of efsa it's purely my own

views

and any factual errors in here are mine

alone

and my own views in the talk are

highlighted

in yellow so where you see yellow text

on slides

you know this is something that is

personal

i want to start at the end here i want

to start by giving you

my take home messages if you like

first of all gmos will not solve all the

problems about food

production for your market secondly

they do raise concerns about

naturalness and the commoditization of

agriculture amongst

some consumers by that i mean that they

seem

strange not to be trusted there might be

features about them that are not safe or

maybe long term

maybe hard to detect and also there are

concerns about the role of

big business taking over our food chain

however in my experience the general

public

is not anti-science the perfectly

happily to go along with gmos

as long as they can see a benefit and as

long as they can see that the risks

are low and are properly being taken

into account

so let's get started properly then

from my point of view the key benefits

of the key pressures on fruit juice

production

are first of all the new eu policies

sustainable use of pesticides for the

farm to forge strategy

the point i would like to make about

these is that they leave the door open

for gmos

but not open very far it's not

assumed that gmos will have an active

role

in producing fulfilling these policies

secondly there is always the pressure to

innovate and compete

for example my wife is allergic to

grapefruit juice

maybe a grapefruit juice without the

allergen would be

a useful marketable item

climate change is a major threat to food

food production and it's not just

changes in average temperatures

it's the extremes that we're

increasingly seeing

this summer it's been very much the fire

and extreme temperatures in california

there are other things on their way

don't no you worry

and not least but new emerging

uh pests and disease risks

and don't forget that just like cover it

can spread around the world rapidly

the same is true for insect pests and

crop diseases

are gm fruit and vegetables the answer

to these issues

well let's go back a bit

i just want to review briefly about how

plant breeding

has developed over the centuries and how

gm

plays its part in this

for thousands of years people have been

breeding plants and animals

by selecting parents that have the

characteristics the traits that they

want

and bringing them together

they don't develop new forms of

variation in the population

they're simply using what is already

there

but there's been real breakthroughs on

this not least

the idea of hybrid vigor that if you

bring together two

quite unrelated parents the children the

offspring may well be fitter

and larger and also

the idea of polyploidy whereas some

crops

during this process have actually

increased the number of chromosomes

which are also gives rise to

uh more productive more vigorous

plants wheat is the classic example

the conventional approach to plant

breeding during most of the 20th century

differs from this basically by trying to

speed up

the amount of variation in the

population

putting more stuff in there and that by

that works by inducing mutation by

chemicals or radiation

and sometimes by using molecular methods

and other methods

to identify the desirable offspring

gives you more scope it gives you more

speed it gives you more precision

and then we come to gm what i consider

to be the first generation of gm

these are the ones that have been on the

market for since the mid 1990s

and these have been developed by taking

genes from one species and dumping it

into the crop

the species is often a bacterium and

typically

the characteristics that have come in

that have been particularly successful

are those that infer resistance against

particular insect pests

or against particular herbicides and

it's been possible to

include molecular markers to make sure

that you select

the characteristics that you

particularly want

and more recently it's been possible to

edit genes much more directly using

approaches such as crispr cast 9

and basically what this allows one to do

is to create bespoke genes

not just cutting and pasting from

elsewhere

but actually coding anything that you

want if you know

the genetic code for the characteristics

that you want

this can include gene drives i'll

explain those in a few minutes

and as for the breakthroughs of these

well i personally feel it's a bit too

soon to say what they are

but the possibilities are huge

i want to go back to the regulation of

gm crops

so how it works in europe and through

efsa

is that all gmos that come

into europe must pass an evidence-based

risk assessment

that's not just gmos used for

cultivation

but that also includes food and feed

the risk assessment addresses toxicity

allergenicity

environmental issues

the gmo panel that i sit on we

try and combine and assess the

scientific evidence

about these issues for a particular gmo

but the final but we advise we don't

give

make the final decisions ourselves the

final decisions are political

at the eu eu level the process is slow

and expensive it is highly contentious

certainly has been and in my personal

view

the use of gmos has neither been a huge

benefit nor an environmental disaster

crispr cass the new approach to gene

editing

first of all make no mistake this is

highly contentious

as i say it is seen by many as not

natural

it's much potentially much cheaper and

easier to undertake

than the uh first wave of gm crops

and importantly it's not the results of

this is not always traceable

it's not always clear that these

techniques are being used

this is used by some some people to

suggest that these things

should be treated as ordinary breeding

because actually

the effects that you get in crispr cass

you can't tell whether they came from

crispr cass or from some other form of

of breeding importantly

there is no consistency around the world

about how these are regulated

in the eu these are going to be

regulated

in exactly the same way as gm crops of

the first wave

and what's happening inside essa at the

moment is that we're reviewing

how best to do this in other words

whether the approaches that are

currently in place

will still be fit for purpose for

crispr cass and gene-edited plants and

animals

but the idea is that however it works

they will be regulated

and this applies to the products as well

as

to the uh the crops

the usa have taken a very different

approach they are not going to be

regulated at all in the usa

canada presents a third way

what they're doing is that they will

regulate novel products

and that depends on what the product

is rather than how it's been developed

so in other words if one uses gene

editing to recreate something

that has already been available that's

fine

if one uses gene editing to create

something that has never been found

before

that will need to be regulated

the future of gene editing well here's

my personal guess

there is very high potential for using

gene editing

for quality traits and field quantity

will they be able to deal with global

heating in general specifics and

pathogens

i'm less confident about this

uh i think there's only a certain

so much that one can change crop plants

so that they can actually be resistant

to these things

i'm not convinced that gm uh crispr cast

gene editing

will make a substantial difference here

i'd be to be proved wrong and i don't

know

as for public perception my instinct

is that people consumers will be

intrinsically cautious

but they're in the final analysis it

will depend on

how much they trust how the products are

being made

and developed and what are the costs and

benefit

considerations i want to mention gene

drives

gene drives a particular brand of gene

editing

and these are particularly uh

unnatural to many people even though

natural gene drives have been known for

many decades

what happens here is that the genes of

interest can be forced into

a wild population even

against selection pressures even if they

reduced fitness

even to the point that it's possible to

force genes into our population

that actually make that population

extinct

or make it change the current focus

is on insect disease vectors and insect

pests

and the idea is either to knock out

local populations of these pests

or to change make them change for

instance

make the mosquitoes resistant to the

malaria intrinsically to start with

there's also potential for using these

techniques with weeds

now the reason why i mention this

is that none of these techniques are yet

commercially available

but they're close

and if they are released and are

accepted

in terms of the fruit and the insect

pests it means that non-edited

plants can still benefit from gene drive

approaches to pest control in other

words

it's still possible to argue that the

fruit juice itself

is non-gm even if its production

has benefited from a gm approach

that's a personal view

key thing to remember about gene drive

is it's at the proof of concept stage

it's not there yet but it's close

and key questions for the regulators and

for the risk managers

if gene drive is released will it carry

on working

definitely or will it break down

and if it's released and something's

going wrong is it possible to recall it

there's a lot of thinking going on about

how to answer these questions

concerns about loss of naturalness which

i've already alluded to

what i'm less sure about is whether

those concerns

will pass from pests and diseases

to the main crops and made food items

so as an agroecologist looking forward

is my take

don't expect instant solutions from the

new technologies

climate change ready in other words

if you start to lose production in some

areas should it

should it be moved to other areas for

example

will different approaches to irrigation

be required

secondly develop integrated pest

management approaches

and others don't just rely on a single

technology

instead see technologies new

technologies as part of your overall

toolkit

and this may be gmo it may be new

biological forms of pesticide or by

new ecological forms of managing pests

in particular be proactive with your

consumers

you need to get if you want them to

adopt gm you've got to work with them

talk to people focus on the risks

costs and the benefits be transparent

and be honest

how are these produced

so the take home messages again

first of all gmos will not solve all

your problems about fruit

fruit production they may help with some

of them

gmos raise issues of naturalness

and the commoditization of food among

some consumers

respect those opinions they're not

anti-science

and as part of respecting those opinions

be open about the benefits of gmos

their price and their quality and if

those benefits aren't visible for the

consumers

are they real they may make it cheaper

for you

but unless those benefits are passed on

they're unlikely to be adopted by the

consumers

any questions

thank you so much dr fairbank on this

insight of to say the least a very

political sensitive development i'm sure

there will be many questions and i give

now the floor to alejandra

to moderate those questions alejandra

the floor is yours

thank you thank you gute er one of the

questions we have here is uh

crisp cast 9 is is becoming a

user-friendly tool

for development of non-transgenic genome

edited crops

but does this really mean that we're

using classical breathing techniques

no crispr cast is not classical breeding

what it it allows you to edit the dna

very very precisely whereas classical

breeding

basically throws the dna together to see

what comes out of it

it is very very different what's

what is interesting about it though in

this discussion

is that it may be very difficult to

actually look at the results of that to

see

whether they were used developed using

crystal cast 9

or whether they were used used using

conventional breeding

in other words you might end up with the

same place but the pathway to get that

is very different indeed

thank you and it seems to be that there

is a

a whole definition of to understand what

really

uh crisp is here in europe and

in the u.s and when it's about uh

breathing technique or classical

breeding techniques why do you think

it's

so different between countries

the definitions of crispr are the same

how it's being treated is that

is very different and the

if you go back to the original

definitions of gm crops

it was always about transferring genes

from one species to another

and that made sense because gene editing

wasn't possible at that time

now we've moved on since then so crispr

cast no longer falls in that

in that early definition and so there's

been question marks as to whether it

is part of that package or not this is

what the european court of justice ruled

on i think

last year or the year before and

different different regions have taken

different attitudes

on this it really comes down to are

these new powerful

more powerful genetic techniques the

same

basically an advance of gmo

or an advance of conventional breeding

thank you now we go back to the studio

thank you alejandra what i propose now

is that we have a 10 minute

coffee break and be back at a 20 past

three