Loading ...GM Biotech Crops delay on decision by Brussels
I was delighted that the EU has again delayed a decision about allowing growth in Europe of three types of GM crops. They stated the genetically modified crops should undergo further scientific analysis on environmental effects and human health before they could be approved.
Are the EU capable of actually making a decision on this issue or is the pressure from the US, Canada and Argentina (the worlds top GM growers) to grow GM crops going to win out? Quite honestly I think the EU are doing a great job of putting this issue off. A no vote would give the WTO and US the opportunity to challenge the decision but a delay for further studies means they have again avoided the door to WTO pressure.
I think we all remember in 2003 when the WTO backed the US, Canada and Argentina in effectively ’suing’ Europe to force us to import their genetically modified crops, with the Bush administration bleating on about the damage Europe was doing to the US farming industry.
The EU last approved GM crops for growth in 1998 and has since been unable to decide on the issue due to very deep divisions in Member State opinion. There are currently over 40 GM products awaiting EU approval.
What I find worrying is that the EFSA have declared every GM food they have studied to be safe, with anti-GM food groups stating this is because the information they base their studies on is in fact provided by the GM industry itself.
It is not just anti-GM groups but some EU Member States that have questioned the EFSA’s “bias” on the issue of genetically modified foods.
Call me cynical if you will but the US are the worlds largest growers of GM crops and they are also the worlds most prolific producers of carbon emissions and have fought world opinion on decreasing emissions. This says much about their environmental concerns and GM crops have not been around long enough to know their true effects on the environment, not that I think the US would care as they seem to prefer the short term quick fix option for everything.
So what am I, as a consumer, worried about? Checking out sites like Check Biotech we see comments like “Europe is already lagging behind worldwide competition when it comes to biotech crops”. Here I am reminded of the words of my mother during my childhood - “if all the other kids jump off a bridge will you do it too?”. The reason we are behind the rest of the World is because we don’t want them, consumers in Europe have said no to GM foods.
Now go back to the 2003 Farm Scale Evaluation Trials which “measured the impact on farmland wildlife of the herbicide use associated with four GM herbicide-tolerant crops, as compared to the herbicide use with the equivalent conventional crops.” and ask yourself if these GM crops are as safe as the US would have us believe then why did the trials conclude “there would be adverse effects from growing GM herbicide-tolerant oilseed rape and beet compared with their conventional equivalents”?
As a European consumer I am already suffering economically due to the American sub prime fiasco and I have no intention of following them down the ‘grow it now and see what happens later’ route.
The WTO backs the GM growers in the interest of free trade but as a consumer I want the final decision on what I buy and what is put into my food. I don’t want world trade to be put before my health.
I am no scientist but my gut tells me that as a consumer I don’t want GM foods on my plate unless and until they are proved to be safe, so ask me again in 20 years when we have seen the results of growing these crops in the US.
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