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DAILY TELEGRAPH

EU lifts five-year ban on GM foods, but shoppers will have choice

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in Strasbourg
(Filed: 02/07/2003)


The European Union will lift its five-year moratorium on genetically
modified produce to try to defuse a row with America, but will impose strict
labelling so that supermarket shoppers have choice.

The new rules, to be approved by Euro-MPs today, clear the way for bio-crops
to be grown and sold in Europe for the first time since 1998, but impose
tough conditions. The bio-tech industry says that this will make the EU fall
further behind America in a key area.

All packets of crisps and biscuits and fizzy drink sold in supermarkets will
have to be labelled a GM product if it contains 0.9 per cent GM material,
even if it comes from derived products and refined oils that no longer
contain any DNA trace of genetically modified organisms.

Since testing will no longer be feasible, producers will have to keep an
onerous "paper-trail" from farm to kitchen, amounting to a multi-page
"passport" for each batch of produce.

The European Association for Bioindustries said the regulations could have a
stifling effect tantamount to a trade barrier. "This imposes a cash burden
on everybody. It squeezes producers to reach a purity standard that is
extremely difficult to meet," said the group.

David Bowe, MEP, Labour's environment spokesman, said: "We're creating the
wrong atmosphere by putting up so many barriers. If we're not very careful,
all the investment will go elsewhere and Europe will end up as a bio-tech
backwater."

Mr Bowe said the requirement to keep mountains of records on every shipment
was unworkable and would invite corruption.

British industry would be hit hardest because half of the EU's bio-tech
sector was located in Britain, much of it in scientific clusters such as
Cambridge.

The EU regulations, which require the assent of farm ministers, are expected
to come into force in October. There are 30 pending applications for new GM
products in the EU, many of them lodged by the US food-giant Monsanto.

The first approvals are likely to go through by early next year. America,
however, is unlikely to be satisfied by the new rules. It has already filed
a complaint at the World Trade Organisation alleging that the EU is
exploiting a bogus health scare to keep out competition.

Last month, President George W Bush accused the Europeans of a Luddite
disregard for science, saying its GM moratorium was responsible for famine
in Africa.

Pat Cox, the European Parliament's president, hit back yesterday on a
subject that has become one of the great ethical disputes of the age. "I
reject completely the linking of the debate to famine in Africa. Europe
doesn't need to be lectured on this," he said.

European public opinion is intensely hostile to GM foods, responding to a
vocal campaign by the Green movement. They fear that "playing God" with our
food supplies could set off a chain of irreversible consequences,
threatening mankind with disaster.

More than 71 per cent of EU citizens say they refuse to eat any products
containing GM traces and 94 per cent want clear labelling. Responding to the
public mood, supermarket chains such as Sainsbury's and Tesco are already
choosing to source produce to non-GM suppliers.

The new rules will allow each EU country to decide for itself how to
regulate the cultivation of GM crops, determining the appropriate buffer
zones to ensure that traditional and organic farmers are protected from
cross-pollination.

The effect is likely to mean a two-tier system across the EU, with militant
anti-GM states such as Austria opting for stringent controls that serve as a
virtual ban, while pro-GM states such as Britain adopt a more American
outlook.