EU welcomes back gene-edited crops, worrying small-scale farmers

Gene-edited crops are making a comeback in the EU. Earlier this week, Brussels lawmakers gave the final go-ahead to an easing of restrictions, allowing a broader use of plants obtained by what’s known as new genomic techniques, or NGTs. The promise is that they will make crops more resistant to drought and disease, increasingly important given climate change. But small-scale farmers are worried about the move entrenching inequality, as the new seeds will be expensive and big biotech firms will control the patents and distribution. For more, Peter O’Brien spoke to Agnès Ricroch, lecturer and researcher at AgroParisTech and Adjunct Professor at Pennsylvania State University.