Battle looming over approval of genetically modified foods

By Karen Carstens

Date: 22/04/04

DEBATE over genetically modified crops and food is hotting up in Europe as farm ministers prepare to decide whether to end the EU's five-year moratorium on the commercialization of GM products.

They are due to consider an application to market a modified maize, known as Bt11, on Monday (26 April).

One obstacle to a positive decision was removed last Sunday (18 April), when EU rules on traceability and labelling of GM products entered into force.

But the ministers will almost certainly fail to reach agreement, according to EU officials and industry sources.

This would put the ball back in the European Commission's court, which could approve the application unilaterally after a three-month waiting period - if it musters the political will to end the moratorium.

Meanwhile, green groups are stepping up efforts to keep the GM sweetcorn, produced by Swiss agro-chemicals giant Syngenta, out of supermarkets.

Friends of the Earth launched a new anti-GM campaign today (22 April) with a ten-point attack against Bt11, citing concerns over insufficient testing and possible allergic reactions from "Bt toxins".

Greenpeace has also stepped up its global anti-GM crusade, calling on the ten new member states to ban all genetically modified organisms (GMOs) approved by the bloc under previous legislation. "Past approvals did not consider the unique ecosystems of accession countries," it said.

At the same time, a new report claims that, by 2050, the world will have to double its food production to feed a predicted population of nine billion.

Gene-altered crops, which require fewer pesticides to increase yields and use up less land, will be needed to do this sustainably, said Clive James of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications, the report's author.

"Biotech crops, although not a panacea, are essential," he said on Tuesday.

But European consumers - as opposed to farmers - are less likely to find any evident significant benefits in GM products, bar an eventual drop in food prices, he added.

Simon Barber, of industry association EuropaBio, warns decisions in Europe should be taken based on science, not politics. "All the scientific evidence is there," he said, referring to the Bt11 example.

"I find it very worrying in the long term for Europe that such decisions are being made as political ones."

Barber predicted the vote would mirror a similar decision taken by an EU committee in February on another type of GM maize (NK603), when Austria, Italy, Luxembourg, Greece and Denmark voted against approval and Germany abstained. If it had not, a qualified majority against NK603 would have been formed that would have killed off the application.

However, a government spokeswoman said Germany would withhold its vote again, so a qualified majority against the Bt11 maize looks unlikely.

Meanwhile, ever-more GM product applications are in the EU policy pipeline.

The European Food Safety Authority on Monday approved a Monsanto maize for use as animal feed.

But it also refused to back a hybrid modified maize produced by the same firm, claiming that further data is still needed.

James warned that, if Europe keeps shunning GM technologies, it will continue to lose out to the United States in the innovation stakes.

EU Agriculture Ministers meeting in Luxembourg on 26 April 2004 were due to consider whether or not to end the EU's five-year moratorium on the commercialisation of GM products.

• Primary Source

http://consilium.europa.eu/ueDocs/cms_Data/docs/pressdata/en/agricult/80050.pdf http://consilium.europa.eu/ueDocs/cms_Data/docs/pressdata/en/agricult/80050.pdf

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