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Expert Event on New Genomic Techniques – Regulation, Risk assessment, Sustainability and Challenges for the Food Chain

Host & Organisers

This event is organised by Environment Agency Austria together with the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety on behalf of the Austrian Ministry for Social Affairs, Health, Care and Consumer Protection and the Austrian Ministry for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology and the Austrian Platform for GMO-free Food Production.

Purpose & Themes

On 24 September 2021 the European Commission (EC) published the inception impact assessment “legislation for plants produced by certain new genomic techniques”. The goal of this event is to discuss this legislative initiative and its implications for a) risk assessment, b) organic and GM-free production and c) the link to the goals of the European Green Deal. Accordingly, three sessions are foreseen where those issues will be addressed by keynote speakers, panel and plenary discussions.

Following an introduction where the state of the European Commission’s initiative will be outlined and commented from different perspectives, practical aspects of a new and adapted regulation of certain products of New Genomic Techniques will be discussed in three sessions.

The aim of the first session is to discuss the proposals of the EC regarding risk assessment, i.e. proportionality of the risk assessment. Topics covered are the implementability of such an approach, compatibility with the case-by-case approach and the precautionary principle, as well as possible implications of a reduced risk assessment for health and environment.

In the second session the impacts on organic and GM-free production will be discussed. Topics covered are implication on the production sector (e.g. coexistence, detection, “freedom to conduct business”) as well as freedom of choice for consumers and consumer protection.

The aim of the third session is to discuss the interplay of the proposals of the EC concerning new genomic techniques with the goals of the European Green Deal and its Strategies, e.g. regarding sustainability. Topics covered the proposal for a sustainability analysis of certain GMOs, and the interplay with the initiative of the EC regarding a framework for a sustainable food system. In addition, other agricultural production practices that are considered sustainable (e.g. organic production, agro-ecology), and impacts on biodiversity and the goals of the Biodiversity Strategy will be discussed.

Date

Tuesday, 21.06.2022,
10:00 am till 06:00 pm
Doors open: 09:30 am

Venue

online or stage 3
vis-à-vis Otto-Preminger-Straße 15
1030 Vienna
Austria
https://stagedrei.at/

Host

AGES-Akademie
Spargelfeldstraße 191
A-1220 Wien
Austria
Phone: +43 50 555-25201
akademie@ages.at