It did not. The Italian people have fought the Germans, French, and the Mafia for 600 years at this point, so a few pale, mentally-ill environmentalists aren’t going to make them tremble. Instead, it did just what many predicted, it caused Italy to stand up to activists. A trial-period that was limited to this year, assuming Europe would concede that if CRISPR is a GMO, then the Mutagenesis still sold by European darling BASF must also be a GMO, and they can’t do that or they penalize the giant domestic employer that was the reason they banned GMOs(1), has been extended.

The EU is paralyzed by an anti-science trap they created for themselves. If CRISPR is somehow a GMO, and Mutagenesis is a GMO, then any genetic modification is a GMO and therefore banned.

The number of wines that can be sold in France if all genetic modification is banned – one.

Europe has its own problems that Italy can now avoid. The Green parties have made such a mess of things by legislating organic food and solar power that with embargo of Russia in its third year, meaning they lost the source of European “organic” food and gas to fill the huge gaps in European production, they have been run out of power, replaced by those Evil Conservative groups that accept science.

That gives the 21st century a chance to succeed while Luddites argue over definitions.

NOTE: (1) The real reason for the ban is not food safety, GMO is a patented process invented by an American company and that made the technology a direct competitor to the old Mutagenesis technology that is still a huge profit center for Europe. Especially because they ban competitors.

Hank Campbell is the founder of Science 2.0. Follow Hank on X @HankCampbell