GMOs in the EU: From “anti-GMO countries” to a joint letter launching a coordinated counterattack.

2015/3/6 16:30:00 People's Network

content Summary: The European Union is one of the regions with the strictest management of genetically modified crops and their products. Although the varieties and actual planting area of genetically modified crops approved by the European Union are far lower than those of the United States and other genetically modified planting countries, EU consumers are still highly dependent on genetically modified crops. There are many genetically modified crops circulating in the European food market, including corn, rape, soybeans, sugar beet, etc.

At the end of 1996, the first batch of genetically modified corn and soybeans were shipped from the United States to Europe, which began the development of genetically modified in the European Union.

On May 14, 1997, the European Union passed the "Order No. 258/97 of the European Parliament Committee's New Food and Food Ingredients Management Regulations", which entered into force on the same day, thus beginning the EU's strict control of genetically modified products.

As of 2014, the European Union has approved two genetically modified crop varieties for commercial cultivation: genetically modified Bt insect-resistant corn and genetically modified Amflora potatoes (the license was withdrawn in 2013). Five EU countries (Spain, Portugal, Czech Republic, Romania and Slovakia) have grown 143000 hectares of GM maize.

Although the varieties and actual planting area of genetically modified crops approved by the European Union are far lower than those of the United States and other major genetically modified planting countries, EU consumers are still highly dependent on genetically modified crops. There are many genetically modified crops circulating in the European food market, including corn, rape, and soybeans., Sugar beet, etc.

According to data released by the International Organization for the Application of Agricultural Biotechnology (ISAAA), the EU imports about 30 million tons of genetically modified crops per year. Among the genetically modified crops approved for marketing in EU countries, very few can only be used as feed or industrial raw materials, and most genetically modified crops can be used as food ingredients.

Control and Approval

due to the epidemic of mad cow disease and food safety incidents such as Coca-Cola's dioxin contamination, EU consumers' confidence in emerging biological products has been greatly shaken. The EU mostly adopts a cautious and preventive attitude when dealing with genetically modified crops, and adopts a set of strict Control system and complex approval procedures to achieve this goal. But the EU has also paid a heavy economic price.

The European Union is one of the regions with the strictest management of genetically modified crops and their products. At present, the management decisions for genetically modified crops are being made at the European level. The 27 member states of genetically modified food, feed and import applications are unified by the European Food Safety Agency (ESFA). Responsible for approval.

ESFA has the most complex approval procedures for genetically modified products. Unlike the United States, which focuses on controlling genetically modified products, these procedures focus on controlling the production and development process of genetically modified products and the environmental release process. The EU believes that only by controlling from the source can the harm of genetically modified products be controlled to a minimum.

According to the approval procedure, after accepting the application materials submitted by the developers of genetically modified crops, ESFA will organize scientific research experts from different countries to set up special groups to conduct discussions, provide independent scientific opinions, and be responsible for giving feedback to scientific questions raised by member countries. If the identification is a positive evaluation, the European Commission will also organize a risk management decision-making process including member states, and then decide whether to approve the genetically modified crop.

The logic of the EU's management of genetically modified products is that it believes that genetically modified technology, a method of improving food, is inherently unsafe. Therefore, no matter whether a food meets safety standards, as long as it is manufactured through genetically modified technology, it must pass strict control.

However, over the past decade, disagreements between pro-and anti-GM countries have limited EFSA's assessment decisions. Countries such as Spain and Portugal that favor the cultivation of genetically modified crops want to unlock the approval process and allow more crops to enter the EU. But "contrarians" such as Germany, France and Austria want to be able to ban such crops from their territory, even if EFSA considers them safe.

Recently, a bill of the European Commission has fallen to the "reversal country", which has brought about major changes in the EU's genetically modified policy.

On December 4, 2014, the European Commission issued a statement unanimously agreeing that "the restriction or prohibition of the cultivation of genetically modified crops in the territory of the member states does not need to be based on the conclusions of the EU risk assessment, and the final decision is left to the specific member states".

In the eyes of the outside world, this move is the EU's "decentralization of the cultivation of genetically modified crops", but it also means that when third countries export genetically modified products to the EU, they are not only technically supervised by EFSA, but also subjected to the test of political barriers set by importing member states based on their own reality and public opinion.

On January 13, 2015, the European Parliament passed the decree "allowing EU member states to restrict or prohibit the cultivation of genetically modified crops in their own countries" with 480 votes in favor, 159 votes against and 58 abstentions in Strasbourg, France. If all goes well, the decree will enter into force in the spring of 2015.

This has raised concerns among some scientists. "We conducted a scientific assessment of risk. If it is safe, we will use it, otherwise we will give up." Jansson Stefan, a professor of plant cell and molecular biology at Sweden's Yumio University, said that allowing a crop to be banned on other grounds "would gradually undermine the scientific basis of the entire system".

Attitude of the population

Vytenis Andriukaitis, the health and food safety commissioner, said the bill would "give democratically elected governments at least as much weight as scientific advice" when important decisions about food and the environment are needed ".

But seed developers have no confidence in this. The director of the Agricultural Biotechnology Department of the European Biotechnology Industry Association said that the basic idea of the bill is bad news for seed companies. "Rejecting modern technology on non-scientific grounds would put the (European) internal market at risk and send a negative signal to global innovators planning to invest in Europe."

the reason for such pessimism is that genetically modified crops do not have much public opinion base in most European countries. In 2013, people in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, held a march against genetically modified crops.

The reason is that EU countries are rich in agricultural resources, and many people think that genetically modified technology is not needed to help increase agricultural income and production. For example, the United Kingdom, its arable land area of more than 600 million hectares, accounting for about 1/4 of its land area.

Most of the European people who oppose GM technology are well educated, which is very different from China. According to a survey, 60% of Europeans believe that genetically modified food is harmful, only 40% accept genetically modified food, and only 34% encourage the production of genetically modified food.

Although the EU countries have a huge camp against genetically modified technology, in today's economic and trade globalization, the EU is not "oil and salt". Today, some EU countries are growing and eating crops such as pest-resistant or herbicide-tolerant GM maize and soybeans. According to data released by ISAAA, the planting area of genetically modified crops in the EU reached 143016 hectares in 2014, especially Spain's adoption rate reached a record 31.6 percent, and its Bt corn planted accounted for 92% of the total area of the EU.

Soybeans and corn are an important source of cooking oil and sweeteners, and it is unrealistic to say that Europeans do not eat genetically modified foods. In fact, today, it is difficult to find a person who has not eaten genetically modified food in any country in the world.

high economic cost

for genetically modified products on the market, the EU adopts a traceability management system and a mandatory labeling system.

Regulation 1830/2003/EC, which entered into force in April 2004, stipulates that products containing more than 0.9 per cent genetically modified ingredients (the labeling threshold) must be labeled "genetically modified" or "processed from a genetically modified crop" from beginning to end. For each approved genetically modified product, the EU determines a unique code consisting of letters and numbers, and stipulates that this code should be marked on the goods containing the corresponding genetically modified ingredients to ensure the traceability of the product.

It is worth mentioning that although the EU is the region with the lowest quantitative standards among the countries that adopt quantitative labeling of genetically modified foods, this is not the most stringent labeling management measure. China, India, the Philippines and Indonesia have established a labeling threshold of 0 for genetically modified foods, that is, mandatory qualitative labeling-as long as genetically modified ingredients are involved, they must be labeled.

Strict approval, management, and labeling systems have effectively controlled the public panic caused by genetically modified technology, but at the same time, the import and export of genetically modified crops in the EU have been correspondingly restricted. And the economic cost to the EU is not small.

In 2011, a study conducted by the University of Reading in the United Kingdom on the impact of EU regulatory restrictions on genetically modified crops on farmers' income showed: "If genetically modified corn, cotton, soybeans, rape and sugar beets are planted in areas with agronomic needs or benefits, farmers The annual income will increase by 0.443 billion to 0.929 billion euros." The study also pointed out: "This income gap is likely to continue to widen because the current level of approval and growth in the EU is still very low, and new genetically modified technologies have entered the market and are rapidly being used by farmers in other regions of the world."

in 2012, a study by the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) showed that the annual economic loss caused by the EU's refusal to grow genetically modified crops was as high as 2 billion euros.

Quietly awakening change

because the attitudes of most European governments tend to be conservative, Europe has long been the main battlefield of the inversionists. However, this situation is changing, and there are increasing calls in Europe to speed up the development of genetically modified technology.

On June 27, 2013, Brian Heap, chairman of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the European Academy of Sciences, published an article in the journal Nature that in the food development competition, "EU countries are losing ground". He said that the EU has been taking restrictive and restrictive attitudes and actions on the issue of genetically modified crops. Now, the EU should adjust the supervision of genetically modified crops in accordance with scientific basis.

Not long ago, on June 20, 2013, British Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Agriculture Owen Paterson delivered a speech at the Lausanne Institute, publicly stating that Europe was missing the opportunity of genetically modified crops: "When the rest of the world has preemptively planted genetically modified crops and gained from new technologies, Europe is risking being left behind." He also called opposition to GM "immoral" and called on the European Union to approve new GM corn plants.

Earlier, on January 3, 2013, Mark Lynas, a famous British popular science writer, environmentalist and once an iconic figure of the reversal movement, delivered a passionate speech at the Oxford Agricultural Conference, apologizing for his demonization of GM. This is regarded by many international media as a weathervane event in the British and EU public opinion circles on the issue of genetic modification.

As the chairman of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the European Academy of Sciences and the UK Secretary of State for the Environment, due to their status and responsibilities, the remarks of Paterson Brian Heap and Owen largely represent the official attitude of the EU and the UK. The above remarks of the two officials, as well as Mark Lynas's "defected" action, give a strong signal that the hardest fortress in the reversal position is disintegrating.

Recently, more than 20 top European botanists jointly signed a joint letter stating that genetically modified crops are banned from field trials in most European countries. This is not a scientific reason but a political reason. The open letter warns the EU that if the development of genetically modified crops is still not allowed, the development goals of European agriculture will be far away.

To some extent, this joint letter is a joint counterattack from European scientists. The EU's quiet awakening may be just around the corner.

Reprinted in Science and Technology World Network http://www.twwtn.com/Agriculture/53_274194.html

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