Swiss perspectives in 10 languages

Swiss crop GMO moratorium set to be extended

Towards an extension of the moratorium on genetic engineering
Towards an extension of the moratorium on genetic engineering Keystone-SDA

A Swiss moratorium on the genetic engineering of plants, which expires at the end of 2025, could be extended for a further five years.

+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox

On Thursday, the House of Representatives voted 153 to 42 in favour of an initiative to this effect put forward by its science committee.

The Federal Council wants a special law to regulate new plant breeding techniques. However, work is not sufficiently advanced to avoid a legal vacuum when the current moratorium expires.

By the end of 2030, no authorisation should be issued for the release, for agricultural, horticultural or forestry purposes, of genetically modified plants and plant parts, genetically modified seeds and other plant propagating material, or genetically modified animals.

The Senate has yet to take a decision.

More

Translated from French by DeepL/mga

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.

If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.

Popular Stories

Most Discussed

News

Population has named two newly discovered Swiss fish

More

Swiss public names two newly discovered fish

This content was published on Two fish species recently discovered in Switzerland have been called fluvicola and ommata, following an appeal to the public for names.

Read more: Swiss public names two newly discovered fish

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative

You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!

If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR