The Times - World News

22 May 2003

President attacks Europe over crops 

Elaine Monaghan

President Bush blasted European nations yesterday for opposing genetically 
modified crops, indirectly accusing them of killing starving Africans, and 
praised his country's acceptance of a duty "as old as the scriptures" to feed the 
hungry.

Raising the temperatures ahead of the June 1-3 summit in France with the 
leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia, President Bush recalled his initiative to end hunger in Africa using
biotechnology and said:" Our partners in Europe are impeding this effort."

His remarks at a commencement address at the Coast Guard Academy in New 
London, Connecticut, could widen the deep transatlantic divisions in the wake of the war in Iraq.

"Unfounded, unscientific fears" had prompted Europeans to block all new 
biocrops, engineered to repel insects and withstand pesticides, he said, commenting on a four-year-old, de facto moratorium by the European Union. Their stance was scaring African nations away from investing in such technology themselves for fear they would be shut out of European markets, he added.

" We have the ability to confront the suffering, and we accept the duty, as 
old as the scriptures, to comfort the afflicted and to feed the hungry," he 
said. " European governments should join, not hinder, the great cause of ending hunger in Africa."

Europeans also fell short when it came to fighting Aids in Africa, he 
declared. Touting his own, $15billion(£10billion) to fight the disease, he said that Europeans should 'match their intentions with real resources!. "I will remind them that the clock is ticking," he told the graduates.