The “Workshop on Microorganisms and Risk Assessment in Biotechnology,” organized by the General Directorate of Agricultural Research and Policies of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, was held in Ankara on February 18, 2026.
Our association members—DSM’s Serpil Börekçi, NOVONESİS’s Duygu Afacan, CARGILL’s Songül Aras, PAK GIDA- Cem Derman, LIVZYMES-Cansu Yıldırım/Sait Çınar, ORBA-Miray Sevim, and our General Secretary Canan ELİBOLLAR, along with relevant units from our Ministry, academics, research institutes, laboratories, civil society organizations, and representatives from the private sector.
The opening remarks of the workshop were delivered by Dr. M. Altuğ Atalay, General Director of TAGEM. Dr. Erkan TAÇBAŞ (Head of the Department of Animal Health, Food, and Feed Research at TAGEM) gave a presentation titled “Approval Processes Under the Biosafety Law No. 5977 in Our Country.” Ülkü Karakuş, Chair of the Board of Directors of the Turkish Feed Industry Association, stated in her presentation titled “The Impact of Biosafety Legislation on the Feed Industry” that there are currently 765 approved transgenic products worldwide, 321 in the EU, and 36 in Turkey. She highlighted the challenges caused by the current Biosafety Law’s failure to cover new technologies. Nermin KAHRAMAN (European Union Delegation to Turkey / Responsible for Agriculture and Food Safety Policies) delivered a presentation on the European Union’s Legislation on Genetically Modified Organisms. She discussed the necessity of updating regulations due to CRISPR-Cas9 technology.
Fatma Gül MARAŞ VANLIOĞLU (TAGEM/Central Research Institute of Field Crops/Deputy Director) provided information on TAGEM’s agricultural biotechnology research. As part of the workshop, evaluation sessions continued with working groups at the Directorate of the National Botanical Garden of Turkey.
1. Group: “Microorganisms: The Benefit-Risk Balance”
2. Group: “Invisible Actors, Real Risks”
3. Group: “Is It Controllable? Uncertainty in Microbial Systems”
4. Group: “The Known, the Unknown, and Regulations”
5. Group: “Risk Communication and Public Trust: From Scientific Assessment to the Field”
The outcomes of the workshop aim to strengthen science-based risk assessment processes in biotechnology and enhance inter-agency collaboration.
The Biosafety Board, established in 2010, was dissolved by a Presidential Decree published in the Official Gazette on August 2, 2018 (Repealed: July 2, 2018 – Decree Law No. 703, Article 206), and its duties and authorities were transferred to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. The Constitutional Court’s Decision dated December 7, 2023, No. E: 2021/125, K: 2023/213, annulled the repeal of this provision.
The reestablishment of the Biosafety Committee was one of the most significant outcomes of the workshop.
