EU Hopes to Level "Major Blow" to Genetically Modified Crops

Friends of the Earth Europe and Greenpeace praise the European Union's (EU's) Commissioner Dimas for authoring a proposal that genetically modified (GM) corns not be permitted for cultivation in the EU countries.

Adrian Bebb, Friends of the Earth Europe's GMO (genetically modified organism) campaigner, said that this EU proposal constitutes a "major blow" to the GMO industry. He added: "For the first time there is a European Commission proposal that GM crops should not be approved in Europe - and crucially this relates to two maize varieties for commercial growing." He also explained that the EU Commission "has raised serious concerns about the environmental impact of growing these crops."

The corns--or maize--that the EU Commission is proposing should be classified as unsuitable for cultivation in EU countries are two varieties that have a shared characteristic. The two corns, Syngenta's Bt11 and Pioneer/Dow's 1507, are genetically modified to produce a toxin that aims at certain crop-damaging insects. The toxin is called Bt.

Recent reliable scientific studies have clearly shown that there is a potential for great environmental harm if these two Bt-corns are cultivated in EU countries. Research shows that while Bt-toxin corn is poisonous to crop-harming insects, it is also poisonous to butterfly species and crop-beneficial insects inclusively.

Research further shows that Bt-toxic corns produce long term harmful effects on soil health. Without healthy soil, the ecosystem cycles like the hydro cycle, the detritus cycle and the nitrogen cycle are interfered with and begin to compound the environmentally harmful effects.

Further research shows that earlier studies underestimated the risks of GM corn and that the risks and effects are not at all predictable. This new emphasis on greater risk and unpredictability highlights the shortcomings of current EU risk assessment procedures and their current ability to independently evaluate risk.

The EU has previously debated the World Trade Organization on the question of whether GM crops are suitable for cultivation in EU countries. They have stated in opposition to the WTO that scientific knowledge, at that time, wasn't complete enough to make a decision in favor of GM crops. These new studies strongly and conclusively support this EU assertion.

Opposition of another sort is anticipated from a small circle of EU Commissioners including Commissioner of Trade Peter Mandelson who is already causing discord over his enthusiastic and active endorsement of a Mediterranean Free Trade zone. Mandelson, Verheugen of Industry and Boel of Agriculture are expected to fight both the proposal and the application of the EU's "precautionary principle" that says that in the face of incomplete or uncertain science, the EU must first protect the environment from all potential harm to avoid irreversible damage.

Greenpeace GMO Policy Director, Marco Contiero, has said that the Commision must reject any effort to authorize the cultivation of GM crops and that if the EU "authorizes the cultivation of these crops, caving in to pressure from Commissioners with a pro-GMO agenda, it would be bluntly violating EU law and new scientific findings."

"Dimas calls for GM maize ban in Europe," Friends of the Earth Europe.