b"EDITORS MESSAGESETTLING DUSTprecisionfarmingorpesticideauthori- proach? Not only between, but also with-sation(thinkneonics&glyphosate),thein political groups there is a spectrum of opinions were vehemently opposed, andviews, with some decision makers fully un-policymakers were inundated with strongderstanding the role that the plant breed-reactions from industry and parts of civiling and seed industry can play in Europe, society. At the same time there is a broadlyand worldwide. They grab the concept that shared wish to decrease the environmentaltheseedindustryiscrucialtowardsthe footprint of intensive farming.efforts of reducing CO2 emissions, reduce As with many things in life, the bestthe use of water or land to produce food, way forward is often weighing all the var- and help address the climate challenge we ious stakes and coming up with a goldenall face. And other decision makers do not compromise. One small problem: the twounderstand this at all. largestpoliticalvotingblocs,thecen- History is full of examples where poli-tre-rightEuropeanPeople'sParty(EPP)ticians who only follow the ideological part andthecentre-leftSocialistsandDemo- will continue to create more problems. Can crats (S&D) have lost their majority in thesomebody tell them that science is key? We European Parliament. The Greens and Lib- need to rely on science, and it should be the erals have made gains, as well as the right- centre of decision-making when it comes to Marcel Bruins wing nationalist and populist groups. Thisinnovation in agriculture and food safety. resultsinanevermoredivided Europe,Unfortunately, this is often not the case.T he European elections are behindwithanincreaseinthepressureonourA way forward to reconcile the vari-usandthedustissettling.political decision makers and a continentous camps needs to include remaining and Thinking about the future of thewhere decision-making will be more diffi- being more open to each other. One can European agricultural sector, therescult than before. Many stakeholders on theeasily foresee that at the end of the day it a lot at stake, and the next Europeanagriculture side are trying to find out whatwill be a discussion about the choices and Parliament and Commission will have towill be next in the debate about the futurethe trade-offs that come with these choices. deal with a number of important issues.of EU farming. Understanding the choices and their trade-In recent years the discussion over theOne of the more difficult dossiers thatoffs, will open the door to zoom in on com-need for science-based decision-makingis currently on the desks of the new EU pol- mon solutions. and to speed up innovation has takeniticians is the one on the new plant breed- Regarding plant breeding innovation, I centre stage, and it has often led toing techniques. As you may recall, in Julywas pleased to see that there are now some strong reactions from the various relevant2018, the European Court of Justice (ECJ)enlightened EU politicians that realize that in stakeholders. From the seed side, weruledthatorganismsobtainedbycertainthe plant breeding innovation debate, there know full well that innovation is crucial ifplant breeding techniques such as mutagen- was too much manipulation and scare-mon-we wish to feed a rising population facedesis, or gene editing, are to be consideredgering around the issue. They realize that with many challenges, such a climateas genetically modified organisms (GMOs)the new plant breeding techniques need new change.and therefore should, fall under the GMOEU legislation that takes into account the lat-Over the past few years, several globalDirective. This was a particularly surprisingest advanced technologies.studies have warned that because of somemove, especially as it went contrary to theButthiswillnothappenovernight, recent decisions, such as the ECJ ruling onAdvocate-Generalsnon-bindingopinion,as the issue is hugely complex. I do hope plant breeding innovation techniques, EUand all of the seed industry was shocked bytheEUpoliticianshaveusedtheirsum-agriculturescompetitivenesshasbeenthis decision. The decision caused an out- mer break well and are now open to start a shrinking due to a lack of innovation. Incry by industry and farmers indicating thatfar-reaching debate on exactly what model other words, EU farming is lagging behind,the decision would set Europe further backof food production we want to see in Eu-compared to the rest of the world and iscompared to other countries and regions. rope, and which road to take to get there. now even lagging behind rising marketsPost-election, the big question now is like China or India. how the new politicians will act: will theyMarcel BruinsNotonlyonplantbreedinginno- keep moving in a fundamentalist way oreditorial director, European Seedvation, but also on other issues, such aswill they adopt a more science-based ap- mbruins@issuesink.com4IEUROPEAN SEEDIEUROPEAN-SEED.COM"