Yesterday, in a referendum on a
moratorium on biotechnology in Swiss agriculture, 55.6% of
Swiss voters supported a five-year ban on the commercial
cultivation of genetically modified crops in Switzerland.
The initiative was brought by a coalition of groups,
including environmental, consumer and agricultural
associations. The Federal Government as well as the Swiss
Parliament had recommended to vote against the ban. The ban
will last until November 27, 2010.
EuropaBio, the EU association for bioindustries regrets
the negative result for Switzerland, as a location for
research and innovation. Although the ban only concerns
the commercial cultivation of GM crops, from experience with
the de facto
moratorium in the European Union, the impact will be acutely
felt in terms of investment in research and innovation.
Field trials in the EU declined significantly during this
period.
The ban means that Swiss farmers will be
deprived of the choice to use advanced biotechnologies. The
European Bioindustry will continue to campaign to offer
farmers and consumers the choice to opt for GM technologies.
There is no scientific basis
to the banning of GM technologies. This year marks 10 years
of wide scale commercial planting of biotech crops and saw
the one billionth acre of GM crops planted.
Biotech crops were grown
by approximately 8.25 million farmers in 17 countries in
2004. Notably, 90% of the beneficiary farmers were
resource-poor farmers from developing countries.
A recent study by PG Economics and
published in the peer reviewed journal AgBioForum reports
that farmers using the technology increased their income by
US$27 billion during the period 1996 to 2004 with
significant, additional environmental benefits delivered
(1).
BACKGROUND
(1) AgBioForum the
Journal of Biotechnology Management and Economics
Volume 8 // Number 2 & 3 // Article 15
http://www.agbioforum.org/v8n23/v8n23a15-brookes.htm
What are
the Benefits of biotech crops – crop by crop
http://www.europabio.org/documents/140404/ne_140404_benefits.htm
