Call for a global moratorium on gene drives

Gene drives could change the world. If what is currently being developed and tested in various genetic engineering laboratories around the world actually works, this technology could be used to create organisms that are genetically manipulated in such a way that they can change their entire species, or even eradicate it. Together with 200 initial signatories, Save Our Seeds is calling for a moratorium on this technology.
A ghastly new form of genetic engineering: it is not individual strains of organisms that are modified and then prevented from passing on their genetic engineering properties to natural relatives to the greatest possible extent, but entire populations in nature become the object of genetic engineering. Gene drive organisms inherit 100 percent of their new properties, including a genetic engineering search mechanism that will also be used to manipulate the genome of subsequent generations.

We believe that this must be stopped before it is too late and therefore, on World Food Day, we launched an international appeal for a moratorium on gene drives in Berlin and Rome, together with the ETC Group, the Heinrich Böll Foundation and over 200 other first signatories.

Joint press release in German
The appeal in English
ETC Group study on Gene Drives in agriculture