Brussels tells Britain: grow more GM food

By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor
Independent on Sunday
07 October 2001

Brussels is mounting a campaign to increase vastly the amount of GM
crops and foods grown and eaten in Britain and throughout Europe,
The Independent on Sunday can reveal.

The European Commission is calling a meeting next week of the 15 EU
governments to persuade them to lift a three-year moratorium on
approving new GM varieties.

Documents seen by this newspaper show the EC wants them almost to
double the amount of approved GM foods and more than treble the
number of permitted GM crops even before a recently agreed
directive has been put into force.

Friends of the Earth warned yesterday that the plan, if adopted,
would lead to "widespread commercial growing" of the crops and
"flood" supermarkets with the foods. There would be huge resistance
from public opinion, which brought about the standstill in the
first place.

The background documents for the meeting, which will be held on 16
October, laments the moratorium, which, it says, has resulted in no
new GM products being approved since October 1998 and compares
Europe unfavourably with the US where the crops and foods are
ubiquitous.

Jointly prepared by the EC's environment and health directorates,
they say that the standstill has "clear and serious implications
for European industry, agriculture, research and related sectors,
and creates legal uncertainties and public concerns".

It adds: "In the US and Canada around 50 GMOs [genetically modified
organisms] have been approved for use in food, whereas in the
European Union, food products derived from only 13 GMOs are
permitted to be placed on the market."

The documents acknowledge that the moratorium was introduced
because governments insisted that "a more stringent and transparent
regulatory framework" should be put in place before any new
products were approved. A directive containing the new framework
was approved in March, but has not yet been put into force in
national laws. The commission adopted rules for labelling and
tracing GM crops and foods in July, but these have not even yet
been passed by the European Parliament or agreed by EU governments.

But the commission is so keen to press ahead with approvals that it
suggests that they should now be done on the basis of "voluntary
commitments" from GM firms, even before any of this comes into
effect.

Adrian Bebb, GM food campaigner for Friends of the Earth, said:
"The EU is trying to rush ahead - under pressure from the United
States and the GM industry - disregarding concerns about public
health and the environment. The gentlemen's agreements that it is
proposing with industry are likely to be worthless, and, in any
case, the public will resist having these products forced upon
them."