Organic food and GM crops top EU agriculture bill

EU farm ministers will hold a policy debate on the merits of organic food production when they meet in Brussels on Monday.

Discussions will centre on regulations for the production and labelling of organic products, including minimum thresholds for processed food labelled as organic.

Commission proposals suggest that for a product to be called ‘organic’ “at least 95 per cent, by weight, of the ingredients of the product shall be organic”.

Also on the table is a less restrictive category, allowing manufacturers to make reference to organic production methods on the list of ingredients, if the product contains between 70 and 95 per cent organic constituents.

Ministers will also debate whether GM tolerance thresholds, currently 0.9 per cent for conventional products, should be tighter for their organic equivalents, and whether mass catering should be exempt from the proposal’s scope.

GM crops will also make an appearance as ministers adopt conclusions on GM coexistence following on from a controversial joint Austrian presidency/commission conference in April.

Austria is pressing Brussels for “sustainable solutions” on segregation measures, despite a recent commission report side-stepping the issue.

The Vienna conference revealed splits within Brussels over GM safety.

The EU’s food safety watchdog, EFSA, recently muddied an already murky issue by querying the fundamental nature of the coexistence debate, and asking why no one had asked EFSA to address the issue scientifically.

Ministers will also look to reach political agreement on establishing a European fisheries fund, discuss a Swedish request on the rising price of olive oil and hear a commission update on avian flu.

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