Chicory in the North, chicory everywhere else. The hated ultra-low calorie vegetable is on display for most of the year from October to April. "The place of production, the name of the variety, the organic nature or not, there is a lot of information on the labels but never the mention genetically manipulated", gets angry Guy Kastler, head of the seed commission at the Confédération paysanne . This agricultural union, associated with various environmental associations, shouts at “hidden GMOs” and calls for their ban or, at the very least, greater transparency.
A decision of the Council of State gives them wings. The highest administrative jurisdiction has just ordered the government to ban sunflowers and rapeseed made resistant to herbicides. "Endives, cabbage, turnips, leeks, beets ... There are a lot of foods in our closets from mutagenesis, cell fusion, in short, genetically tweaked without this being indicated. 85% of endives are affected, we even find them in organic stores, ”laments Guy Kastler.
Why modify them?
Why are Ch'tis chicory genetically modified? The objective is to make the seeds ultra-feminine, in the jargon we say "CMS" for "sterile male cytoplasm", in order to better control the hybridization process. Natural endives are both male (pollen) and female (seed). However, in the 1980s, we “castrated” a line of endive to prevent it from becoming self-fertilized when we cross it with a male line chosen for characteristics that interest market gardeners: precocity, resistance to insects ...
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"GMOs, yes, but hidden, certainly not," defends Emmanuel Lesprit, director of the plant improvement division of the French Union of seed companies. There is no big plot! "He counts himself:" Out of 58 varieties of endives, 47 are hybrids and almost all come from this cell fusion. Professionals are content to follow the law. These vegetables are GMOs according to European regulations. Only they are exempt from strict controls, labeling and monitoring. "Because the fusion takes place within the same botanical family and therefore that it could have been done in a natural way", underlines Emmanuel Lesprit.
But the sunflower, used for this fusion, is indeed a distant cousin of the endive. "Hybridization in the open field is very improbable," remarks Véronique Chable, researcher at the National Institute for Agronomic Research (INRA).
Is it dangerous?
So we eat GMOs without knowing it. Is it dangerous? "Of course not," replies Emmanuel Lesprit. These endives have been widely marketed for over forty years, they have proven their safety. Anti-GMOs are brandishing the precautionary principle. For the health of the planet, on the other hand, ANSES (National Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety) concluded that the "mutant varieties" created to resist herbicides are dangerous: they risk to develop the resistance of weeds, and ultimately the use of phytosanitary products to eliminate them.
Anti-GMOs preach for total transparency vis-à-vis consumers. Especially since, even among producers, few of them are aware of these techniques (see opposite). “Difficult to indicate without CMS on a label. No one knows what this acronym means, notes Véronique Chable. Pointing the finger at seeders is useless. Perhaps we need to review our system which, for reasons of efficiency, encourages this type of manipulation. "
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Some players still have more meticulous specifications and have excluded all vegetables from CMS seed. This is the case of the Demeter certification respecting the specifications of the EU organic label, of the BioBreizh cooperative in Brittany (see opposite) or of the Carrefour quality sector. In terms of endives, certain varieties - first lady, bingo, baccara and vintor - are guaranteed without cell fusion.
GMOs: what the law says
The 2001 European directive created two categories of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Wrongly, according to anti-GMOs; with common sense, consider the seeders. Transgenic corn capable of repelling insects, rapeseed mutated to create plants resistant to herbicides, super vegetables called "clenchers" genome cut with "molecular scissors", endives from cell fusions ... These plants are GMOs according to European regulations. But, she said, while some techniques formally create genetically modified organisms, they don't require the same level of control, labeling, or monitoring.
This is the case of cell fusion when it occurs within the same botanical family because such a crossing would, in theory, be possible in the open field. This is also the case for certain "historical" mutageneses. In essence, the Directive considers that plants "which have been traditionally used" have had time to demonstrate their safety. In France, the Council of State has just given the government nine months to enforce strict rules by GMOs made resistant to herbicides by mutagenesis. "This may lead in practice to withdraw the varieties concerned from the catalog and to suspend their cultivation", provides the high court.