US National Organic Standards: no GMO 2.0

According to US-based Organic Consumers Association (OCA) the National Organic Standard Board (NOSB) decided last month that new GMO technologies won´t be allowed in organics.

Cloning, nanotechnology, synthetic biology are these new GMO technologies sometimes called as GMO 2.0. The NOSB has held its meeting (November 16 – 18) in St. Louis, Mo., home to Monsanto headquarters. Two of the hot-button issues were the new technologies but also to get the controversial food additive carrageenan out of organics.

"Both votes were big wins for consumers", explains OCA. The third and arguably hottest topic—whether hydroponic “container” production methods violate USDA organic standards—was kicked back to a subcommittee for further review.

Thousands of consumers have signed a OCA petition to the NOSB “say ‘no’ to GMOs in organics”

A few weeks ago, Melody Meyer, a member of the Organic Trade Association (OTA), wrote in a recent blog post that she wanted gene editing, a dangerous new form of genetic engineering, to be allowed in organic. In response, OCA and other groups pressured the NOSB to pass its Excluded Methods Terminology Proposal to update and further define the criteria for evaluating all methods of genetic engineering—including CRISPR,  cell fusion, RNA interference and recombinant DNA technologies, along with gene editing technologies.