http://news.ft.com
Financial Times

GM crop groups accused of 'trying to lie'

By John Mason, Food and Rural Affairs Correspondent
October 14 2003 5:00 | 

The debate over genetically modified crops intensified yesterday after a 
European Union commissioner accused biotech companies of misleading people 
over the benefits of the technology.

Margot Wallström, environment commissioner, said Europe's five-year moratorium 
on GM crops should be lifted, but urged companies to act responsibly and 
develop appropriate products to win public confidence.

"They tried to lie to people, trying to force it [GM] upon people. We have not 
accepted that. They have learnt a lesson from it. When they argued about 
feeding the starving, why did they not start out with these products? Feeding 
the starving shareholders, yes, but not others," she told journalists in 
London.

Croplife, the biotech industry association, denied its members had misled the 
public over GM crops. Ms Wallström's comments showed a "poor understanding" 
of research and development-based industries, which had to make a profit 
before investing in subsistence crops, it said.

Ms Wallström said consumers and farmers had legitimate concerns over the 
health and environmental impacts of GM crops. However, the European Union had 
responded by drawing up a tough regulatory system, including traceability and 
labelling rules, to handle the introduction of the crops and this should now 
be put to the test.

"We have to be able to demonstrate to the rest of the world that the European 
approach works. How else can we explain to the United States that this is the 
European way of doing things? We have to be able to work with it and 
implement it."

The UK's farm-scale trials of GM crops, whose results will be published on 
Thursday, would have a significant impact on possible approvals of GM crops 
within Europe, she said. The trials, the largest-ever experiments into the 
ecological impact of GM crops, are expected to give mixed verdicts on the 
planting of transgenic maize, sugar beet and oil-seed rape.

"We asked the scientists and experts. If they say it is dangerous to health or 
the environment, we should say so," Ms Wallström said.

She also said she remained confident Russia would ratify the Kyoto protocol on 
climate change, enabling it to come into full legal effect. Russia had 
delayed ratifying the treaty because it was attempting to link this with 
other trade and energy issues, she said. The US had also put indirect 
pressure on Russia not to ratify, Ms Wallström added.

http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1059480567870