Science Wins! MEPs vote in support of NGTs

We won!

After three epic years of campaigning, today our movement persuaded 100s of members of the European Parliament to back proposals that will revolutionise the future of farming, reducing pesticide use, reducing fossil fuel fertiliser inputs and making crops more resilient to climate shocks.

Planet scientists from University of Verona rally in support of New Genomic Techniques (NGTs) ahead of crunch vote in EU parliament.

MEPs voted to support what are known as New Genomic Techniques or NGTs. These are ground-breaking gene editing techniques of breeding crops that harness the best of human ingenuity to produce the crops of the future – today.

Thanks (in part) to our campaign, and the involvement of thousands of scientists, farmers, and environmentalists, we managed to convince many MEPs to support the change in the law, thereby helping us protect more of nature and reduce the climate impacts from food production.

CRISPR-Cas co-discoverers Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna, as well as renowned authors Steven Pinker and Peter Singer, lead over 1600 signatories calling for NGTs to be legalised for use in Europe.

Here’s some of the amazing things our movement has done to make this happen:

• Mobilised 37 Nobel prize winners and over 1,600 of the world’s leading scientists to sign on open letter we wrote to MEPs calling on them to support NGTs

• Brought together 1000+ professors and researchers from 29 universities in 14 countries to hold unprecedented demonstrations and tag their MEPs on X

• Sent hundreds of emails to pivotal members of the European Parliament's Environment Committee countering anti-science disinformation
  

Just some of the 1000+ scientists who took action ahead of the crucial vote

And it paid off. Our campaign was praised three times by three separate MEPs in the debate yesterday with one MEP writing to us privately to tell us that our campaign was “incredibly important” in swinging the vote.

MEPs vote in favour of New Genomic Techniques (NGTs)

However we may have won this battle, the war isn’t completely won. Next up is the proposal is sent to national ministers will decide whether to accept the European Parliament’s amendments. We already know that big, powerful members states are gearing up to oppose the law. This means we must be ready for the next part of this campaign.

Can you help us by making a small donation to our campaign? We achieve a huge amount without the deep pockets of our opponents, and we depend on people like you to chip in small amounts when you can.

Can you help us now with a small donation?

What an amazing feeling being part of a coordinated pan-European pro-science campaign! This is just the beginning! Look at what we can achieve when we work together. 

Thank you to everyone who stood up for science. This is your victory!