This is an announcement that has gone almost unnoticed. Yet it marks a victory for environmentalists and voluntary reapers, a militant movement opposed to GMO, in the fight against transgenic crops. In a press release, the INRA (National Institute for Agronomic Research) declared that it had stopped a scientific trial using genetically modified poplars conducted in the open field in the Loiret. This lifting of research marks a halt to experimentation on GMOs, an area in which France was a model in the 1990s. This decision was taken against the will by researchers. They did not indeed obtain the explicit authorization by the Ministry of Agriculture to renew the research for a further period of five years.
For years, there has been a lively debate between pro and anti GMOs. The latter blame genetically modified organisms for presenting health risks (risk of allergy, ineffectiveness of antibiotics or even risk of cancer). The scientific community is also divided on the subject.
Transgenic poplars may not have revealed all their secrets
Unlike the ecologists, this stop of the experiments leaves a bitter taste to the scientists who took part in the work on this plot of poplars of 1,400 m2.
This experiment, begun in 2007 by the Orleans research center of INRA, pursued several objectives. It was notably a question of deepening the “knowledge on the biological processes intervening in the formation of wood”, of “evaluating the technological potential linked to this knowledge, within the framework of the reflections. [sur] energy transition “and” to assess the impact of genetically modified plants on the microbial biodiversity of the soil “.
INRA intends to recall the importance of these scientific issues and announces on its site that it will “propose new field trials and conduct research on all the associated issues”. Case to follow.
