CRISPR technology is not the same as GMO technology; it does not introduce DNA from other species into plants. Yet many governments remain largely opposed to using either GMO or CRISPR technology for crops, shrinking the toolbox for addressing climate change.

Europe may pride itself on its climate change measures, but in agriculture, it is an example of what states shouldn’t do. In 2018, the European Union’s top court ruled that gene-edited crops were subject to the same stifling regulation that has largely kept GMOs out of European fields since the late 1990s.

That means that instead of relying on modern technology, the EU’s sustainable farming plan runs through its new Farm to Fork strategy, which will increase organic farming from nine percent to at least 25 percent of cropland in Europe.

The increase in organic farming under Farm to Fork, for example, would shrink cereal crop production in the EU by an estimated 21 percent. To compensate, Europe would have to convert approximately 3.7 million acres of its forests into farms, and the rest of the world would have to convert an additional 12.4 million acres. This would increase the amount of carbon released from the soil and destroy natural habits.

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