EU Commissioners Split on Genetically-Modified Food
Date: 06-Apr-06
Country: AUSTRIA
Author: Jeremy Smith
Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas, known as one of the more GMO-wary members of the 25-strong executive arm, hinted there was no particular need or hurry to promote GMO crops.
Given poor consumer demand and the low level of acceptance for biotech food, which Dimas said was unlikely to rise, farmers would continue to grow conventional or organic varieties.
"We must, therefore, persist in looking at the means to continually improve these varieties," he told a two-day conference to discuss separation of GMO crops from conventional varieties.
"We should not ignore the use of upgraded conventional varieties as an alternative to GM crops, particularly where similar characteristics can be introduced without genetic modification," he said.
His fellow Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel, responsible for agriculture, took a different view -- saying, effectively, GMOs were here to stay and Europeans should get used to them.
"Whatever our personal views may be, the use of GM technology is spreading, as is the use of GM crops," she said.
"It is already completely legal to grow certain GM crops within the European Union and the list of permitted crops will almost certainly become longer if we look years ahead. GM farming has arrived," she told the conference.
Their comments come a week before the Commission holds an internal debate on GMO policy, an area that has sparked numerous disagreements in the past. Its last debate, in March 2005, concluded that Europe should press ahead with more GMO approvals -- if necessary without the blessing of most EU governments.
The Commission is itself divided on biotech policy. In the past, five commissioners have dealt with GMOs: representing agriculture, trade, research, environment and food safety.
CROP SEPARATION
That wasn't the only area where Dimas and Fischer Boel appeared to disagree on biotech crops.
On physically separating organic, traditional and GMO crops -- a concept known as coexistence -- Dimas, responsible for processing applications for new GMOs for cultivation, was keen to stress that GMO crops should not harm the environment.
"...I am keen to ensure that the environment is protected from potential risks arising from the cultivation of GMOs. Coexistence measures, on top of the benefits they provide in ... commercial terms, can play a role in this respect," he said.
But coexistence had nothing at all to do with the environment, Fischer Boel said.
"It's very important to understand clearly how our policy choices about coexistence fit into the structure of the European Union's overall GMO policy," she told the conference.
"Within the logic of that structure, coexistence policy is not about the safety of people, animals or the environment. It is not a tool for managing risks to health or to the environment," she said.