Nobel laureates call on EU to relax rules on genetic modification

Open letter says lawmakers must reject fearmongering' and allow scientists to develop crops that can withstand climate emergency'

The EU must reject the darkness of anti-science fearmongering" before a key vote on gene editing, 34 Nobel prize winners have said.

In an open letter shared with the Guardian and other European newspapers, the laureates demanded that lawmakers relax strict rules on genetic modification to embrace new techniques that target specific genes and edit their code. The technology could make crops more resistant to disease and more likely to survive extreme weather events that are growing more violent as the planet heats up.