Biotech battles loom

The biotech debate will hot up next week, as Europe tackles two possible authorisations for genetically modified products and the question of GM traces in seeds.

First up will be a discussion on whether or not to allow Syngenta’s GM corn BT-11 for sale in the EU.

After months of speculation the issue will finally be tabled at an agriculture council in Luxembourg on Monday.

A ‘yes’ would signal the first GM authorisation in Europe since 1998.

But with national governments showing no signs of relaxing their positions for or against, a qualified majority either for or against looks unlikely.

If there is deadlock the decision is handed to the European Commission to unilaterally approve BT-11 for sale - a move that could lead to futher delays.

However, advocates of biotechnology may see a glimmer of hope in Friday’s meeting of the commission’s standing committee on food safety, which will discuss a second GMO.

Monsanto-developed NK603 failed to get approval in February this year, and may struggle again this time.

But in theory the meeting does offer a second chance to break the moratorium: a ‘yes’ from the committee would free up the corn for sale, requiring no further approval at ministerial level.

And Denmark will on Monday be reopening a parallel debate, this time on the level of GMOs in seeds.

Laws establishing the permissible level of biotech products in food – 0.9 per cent – came into force this month, but standards for seeds are eagerly awaited by both environmentalists and gene scientists.

A proposal on seed thresholds is already doing the rounds within the commission, but Denmark at the agriculture council will demand to know when the public can expect to see anything.

Setting seed thresholds should in principle be a scientific rather than a political question: it needs to be established what level GMOs can be tolerated in seeds if the 0.9 per cent end product limit is not to be breached.

But in Europe’s current anti-biotech climate the debate is unlikely to remain neutral.

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