During the plenary vote in Strasbourg this week, Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) are due to vote on two proposed Regulations – GM food and feed (Scheele report) and GM labelling and traceability (Trakatellis report)

If the majority of MEPs vote with the hard line greens, the new rules could eliminate consumer choice, reduce options for sustainable agriculture in Europe, and disrupt trade with third countries. These are the issues at stake.

Guaranteeing 100% purity of agricultural commodities is practically impossible. Traditional purity thresholds are established to account for the unavoidable presence (adventitious presence) of different foreign materials. GM material, too, can be unintentionally present in small levels in non GM crops. If a product has more than 1% GM protein, the European Commission’s proposal requires it to be labelled. This is a very restrictive threshold compared to existing purity requirements. For example, thresholds of 5% have been agreed for non-organic material in products that may be still labelled as organic. Yet, some MEPs wish to lower the threshold to 0.5% or less, which would be incompatible with agricultural practices in the EU and around the world. Legislators must consider an allowance that can be realistically achieved.

Hardliners want zero tolerance for traces of GM present in imported crops. All commercially grown GM crops outside Europe have received a clean bill of health on environmental and public health grounds. The EU’s de facto moratorium on GM crops means that very few have been approved in Europe. Yet the EU is dependent on imports in many sectors. For example the EU imported 4 800 thousand tonnes of corn gluten feed and 14 260 thousand tonnes of soyabeans in 1999/2000. The EU’s soyabean self sufficiency is estimated by the European Commission to vary between 6 and 10%. Legislation should permit the presence of trace amounts of GM products from the EU’s trading partners, as long as the health and environmental safety of the GM has been approved by the exporting country using a regulatory system that meets EU standards. The legislation must also recognise that small traces of approved GMs will occur in seeds for cultivation and provide a legal recognition for thresholds.

Industry supports labelling that provides consumers with choice and can be verified by testing. Today, all foods and food ingredients that contain GM material must be labelled. Now, the European Commission wants to extend this labelling to all products derived from GMOs even if they do not contain GM material any more. This would mean the labelling of products like sugar and oils where it is impossible to detect whether these come from GM crops, traditional crops or organic crops. Such products are physically and chemically identical. Some MEPs also wish to label meat, milk, and eggs from animals fed GM grain. However, if labelling claims cannot be proven or controlled through independent analysis, consumer choice is not guaranteed. Industry supports labelling based on the presence of detectable GM material.

Tracing products is a key part of food safety standards and is a well established practice in the EU. Community legislation already insists on product traceability: no company can put food or feed on the market without being able to recall it immediately. Additional and incremental traceability requirements imposed only on GM foods or feed have no basis in protection of health or the environment and do not add anything to the safety of the final product that is not already covered by the new European food law.

The introduction of GM technology is a strategically important technology which offers eco-friendly farming practices and higher incomes for farmers through improved plant varieties, less crop losses and less spraying. A recent analysis, by Dr. Phipps from the University of Reading, estimated that if 50% of the maize, oil seed rape, sugar beet and cotton grown in the EU were GM varieties, there would be a reduction of 7.5 million ha sprayed, saving 20.5 million litres of diesel and approximately 73,000 tonnes less carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere.

GM technology is the fastest growing technology ever adopted by farmers: 5.5 million farmers around the world are now growing many different types of crops and varieties of crops that have built-in resistance to pests, insects and weed killer. In the developing world, the FAO, OECD, UNDP all agree that GM technologies are important for agricultural development. GM can boost incomes as it reduces crop losses in a more environmentally sustainable way.

In last year’s Eurobarometer, 85.8% of Europeans thought that GM should be allowed if scientifically proven to be harmless. The European Commission, after 15 years of research on 400 projects stated that because of the more stringent rules for GM, GM is as least as safe as conventional products.

Europabio urges MEPs to support amendments that permit the continued development of appropriate GM crops in order to meet the common goal of sustainable agricultural production in Europe.

Strasbourg contacts:
Simon Barber, Director Plant Biotechnology Unit, EuropaBio
Mobile: +32 476 44 24 20
Bernd Halling, Public Affairs Manager, EuropaBio
Mobile: +32 476 84 79 53

EuropaBio has almost 40 corporate members operating worldwide and 18 national biotechnology associations representing some 1000 SMEs involved in research and development, testing, manufacturing and distribution of biotechnology products. EuropaBio, the voice of European bioindustries, aims to be a promoting force for biotechnology and to present its proposals to industry, politicians, regulators, NGOs, and the public at large.