The question is highly controversial: should new genetic engineering methods be deregulated? So should some forms of new genomic techniques (NGT) no longer fall under the strict rules for genetically modified organisms (GMOs)? EU agriculture ministers discussed the issue in Brussels on Monday. A point of contention is, among other things, the question of the patentability of plant varieties produced with NGT. “The point is that we see the big corporations as being favored here. The comparatively small agriculture and seed industry are threatened by the monopolization that could occur here,” Austrian Agriculture Minister Norbert Totschnig (ÖVP) said in the period leading up to the ministerial meeting.
