GMOs: EU problem child

GMOs are still dividing the EU, both in Brussels and across member states, according to activists and MEPs writing in the latest issue of the Parliament Magazine.

Simon Barber, the director of biotech lobby Europabio, argues that “Europe’s slow adoption rate to cultivate biotech crops simply hurts EU farmers and consumers".

Barber says that in their first nine years, GM crops increased global net farm income by €23bn and reduced the environmental footprint of farming by 14 per cent. 

He adds that GMOs drastically reduce pesticide use.

“The European commission’s joint research centre estimates that if 75 per cent of French rapeseed farmers grew the GM variant, they would save €24m in weeding costs per season,” he says.

This is disputed by Rosemary Hall, a spokeswoman for Friends of the Earth Europe, who writes that “the shining promises of genetically modified food and crops have not materialised”.

“We were told that GM would lead to increased yields, but data from the US, Australia and Brazil indicates that GM crops do not yield more than comparable conventional varieties,” she says.

“The scientific and economic data on the costs and risks of biotechnology in agriculture must be taken into account – and the strong opposition of European citizens to GMOs must not be ignored,” she says.

Like the member states who have been stuck in deadlock on the issue for years, the EU institutions themselves are strongly divided on the topic – both within the European commission itself and at parliament.

MEP Renate Sommer says that “instead of informing citizens about GMOs in a realistic and pragmatic way, it is particularly the Greens who create and promote horror scenarios”.

“If we fail to use the possibilities of genetic engineering, we will soon be dependent on other countries,” she warns.

“The scenario of genetically-free farming in the EU is a dishonest construction: it is impossible to satisfy the considerable appetite of Europeans for animal products without growing GM-soybeans,” Sommer argues.

Green MEP Friedrich-Wilhelm Graefe zu Baringdorf takes a very different view.

“The fear that Europe will fall further behind in terms of technology and competitiveness seems to be an irresistible argument, although there is significant evidence to show that ecologically, economically and socially, the sustainable agriculture of the future will have to be GM-free,” he says.

"EU farmers have a right to stay GM-free; they do not have a right to contaminate non-GM crops," he argues.

“Further steps are needed at the European level, such as establishing a labeling threshold for seed at the technical detection level,” Baringdorf adds. 

To read each complete Parliament Magazine article click on the author's name:Simon Barber,Rosemary Hall, Renate Sommer, Friedrich-Wilhelm Graefe zu Baringdorf.

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