Why Does Europe Hate GM Food and is it About to Change its Mind?
from AFP 6
Jul 2014, 9:11 AM PDT
While the United
States, Canada,
Brazil, Argentina and China
and many other countries have warmly embraced genetically modified crops, Europe remains the world's big holdout.
Could this be about to change? New European Union rules now seek to clear up years of internal
deadlock that could, in theory, lead to widespread cultivation of GM foods. But
the fight is far from over.
The EU's great GM debate pits two powerful
forces against each other: green campaigners concerned about the effect of the
crops on health and the environment, and the agri-business lobby, which argues
that Europe, by resisting a technology that
boosts yields and rural incomes, is losing its place at the forefront of
agricultural innovation.
Only five EU countries grow GM crops at
all -- Spain, Portugal, the Czech
Republic, Romania
and Slovakia
-? and in such tiny quantities that they accounted for less than 0.1 percent of
global GM cultivation last year, according to the International Service for the
Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications,
which monitors the industry.
Europe's fragmented politics, diverse
landscapes and smaller scale farming traditions have made it less compatible
with the mass-farming techniques in the Americas
and China.
Only one type of modified crop ? a herbicide-resistant maize ? is approved for
cultivation in the EU, compared to 96 commercial licences granted in the United States since 1990, although Europe does import more than 30 million tonnes of GM
grain for animal feed each year.
"Europe has perversely condemned
itself to importing crops which its farmers could grow locally and banished
thousands of bright scientists to other shores for reasons that are
scientifically bogus," claims Brandon Mitchener, a Brussels
spokesman for Monsanto, one of the US
agribusinesses leading the push for GM crops.
Hoping to find a way out of the deadlock,
EU environment ministers last month approved new rules that would permit
individual countries to make their own decisions on GM -- allowing them to use
"ethical" or "public order" rationales to ban crops even
when scientific advisors have ruled that these strains are safe.
The compromise was the result of a fraught
battle, says Frederic Vincent, health spokesman for the European
Commission: "Everyone was blocking the agreement for different
reasons. The UK said not
enough was left to science, France
said too much was left to science, Germany was a mix of both thanks to
its complex coalition."
Genetic modification technology was not
always so controversial in Europe. Even
France, now one of its staunchest opponents, grew GM maize well into the 2000s
until green protesters pressured the government into a ban.
But Mitchener says the seeds of Europe's
aversion to GM were sown in the 1990s, thanks to two factors in particular: the
strength of the Green party in Germany
at the crucial moment when the technology was first emerging, and then the
scare over mad cow disease in Britain.
"Mad cow disease caused a loss of
public confidence in science. You had the British government saying beef was
safe, while the EU said the opposite," he says.
Unlike the US Food and
Drug Administration (FDA), which commands widespread respect in the United States, equivalent bodies in Europe are often treated as pawns of industry or simply
ignored, Mitchener adds.
"The tragedy of biotech in Europe is that no one listens to EFSA," he says,
referring to the European Food Safety Authority, a scientific body set up
partly in reaction to the mad cow disease confusion. It has consistently stated
there is no risk from GM crops.
Pro-GM scientists argue GM is not
inherently more dangerous to either the environment or human health than any other
method of crop mutation -- whether through selective breeding or naturally
through evolution.
Or, for that matter, by blasting seeds
with radiation, as humans have been doing for decades through the process of
"mutagenesis", hoping to create mutant seeds with useful properties.
More than 2,500 crops have been created in this way, including a premium barley
used in Scotch whisky and disease-resistant cocoa in Guinean chocolate.
"In fact, GM is actually safer than
most forms of breeding because we know exactly which properties are being
implanted -- it?s much less random," argues Huw Jones, a GM scientist at
Rothamsted Research in the UK.
But Greenpeace, one of the most vocal
opponents, dismisses the idea of a scientific consensus on GM safety as "a
myth".
It argues that continued gaps in knowledge
about gene manipulation should raise alarm bells, especially as the technology
moves beyond single-gene transfers and into more complex experiments.
It also portrays GM technology as a symbol
of all that is wrong with modern mass-farming techniques.
"GM crops are presented as a
solution, but they are part of the problem. They are a product of a wider
agricultural system that is destroying our environment. They lead to more
uniformity and even greater economies of scale, when what we need is greater
diversity," says Marco Contiero, EU agricultural policy director for
Greenpeace.
That ties in with familiar concerns about
the way GM crops are commercialised. It costs the big agrochemical firms such
as Monsanto or Bayer around $200 million (140
million euros) to develop the simplest GM seed, Greenpeace says, and that gets
recouped through aggressive marketing and monopoly ownership of seeds that have
made Monsanto in particular the b㪴 noire of the green movement.
All this means that the newly minted EU
deal -- due to go before the European Parliament
and Council by the end of the year -- still faces major obstacles.
Environmentalists such as Jose Bove, a
French Green MEP who went on hunger strike in 2008 to force France's first GM
ban, complain the agreement will give gives biotech firm a direct role in
lobbying governments, threatens single market principles and does nothing to
protect cross-border contamination from GM seeds planted in neighbouring
countries.
With the EU still poring over the results
of May Euro-elections, it is unclear how the looming political battle will pan
out. Even if the GM directive passes, will national governments court the ire
of environmental campaigners by permitting large-scale GM cultivation?
"We're creating organisms that
haven't been created in the whole of history," says Contiero. "We are
not opposed to GM in principle, but this technology is only 20 years old. For
that reason, we need to be absolutely cautious."
Monsanto
Akin,
Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP is the lobby firm for the Monsanto Company, and the Biotechnology
Industry Organization.
Note: Vernon E. Jordan Jr. is a
senior counsel for Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer
& Feld, LLP, Valerie B. Jarrett’s great uncle, an honorary
trustee at the Brookings Institution (think
tank), a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think
tank).
Valerie
B. Jarrett is Vernon E. Jordan Jr’s great niece, the senior adviser for the Barack Obama administration, and a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.
Cyrus
F. Freidheim Jr. is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago,
and an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution
(think tank).
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Brookings Institution (think tank), the NAACP Legal
Defense & Educational Fund, the Human Rights
Watch, the Aspen Institute (think
tank), and the Carnegie Endowment
for International Peace (think tank).
George Soros
was the chairman for the Foundation to
Promote Open Society, a benefactor at the Human Rights
Watch, is a board member at the International Crisis Group,
and the founder & chairman for the Open Society Foundations.
Open
Society Foundations was a funder for the American
Constitution Society.
Eric H.
Holder Jr. was an intern at the NAACP Legal Defense &
Educational Fund, a board member for the American
Constitution Society, a partner at Covington
& Burling LLP, and is the attorney general at the U.S. Department of Justice for the Barack Obama
administration.
Covington
& Burling LLP is the lobby firm for the Biotechnology
Industry Organization.
Jean De
Ruyt is a senior public policy adviser for the Covington
& Burling LLP, and was a representative of Belgium for the European Union.
Stuart
E. Eizenstat is a senior counsel at Covington & Burling
LLP, and was a U.S.
ambassador for the European Union.
European
Parliament is an elected parliamentary institution for the European Union.
Wim van
Velzen was a member of the European Parliament,
and is a senior European policy adviser for Covington
& Burling LLP.
Harold H. Koh
was a lawyer at Covington & Burling LLP, the State
Department legal adviser for the Barack Obama
administration, and a trustee at the Brookings
Institution (think tank).
Mark
B. McClellan was a senior fellow at the Brookings
Institution (think tank), and the commissioner for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Michael
R. Taylor is the deputy commissioner for foods for the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration (FDA), and was the VP for public policy for
the Monsanto Company.
Javier
Solana is a director at the Human Rights Watch,
a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank),
a board member at the International Crisis Group,
and was the high representative for common foreign & security policy for
the European Union.
European
Commission is the executive body for the European
Union.
European
Parliament is an elected parliamentary institution for the European Union.
James S.
Crown is a trustee at the Aspen Institute
(think tank), and a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago.
Lester Crown
was a lifetime trustee at the Aspen Institute
(think tank), and is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.
R. Eden
Martin is the president of the Commercial Club of Chicago,
and counsel at Sidley Austin LLP
Michelle
Obama was a lawyer at Sidley Austin LLP.
Barack Obama
was an intern at Sidley Austin LLP.
Sidley
Austin LLP was the lobby firm for the Monsanto Company,
Biotechnology Industry Organization,
and is the lobby firm for Bayer HealthCare.
Newton N.
Minow is a senior counsel at Sidley Austin LLP,
and a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.
Cyrus
F. Freidheim Jr. is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago,
and an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution
(think tank).
Jessica Tuchman Mathews
was an honorary trustee at the Brookings
Institution (think tank), is a director at the Nuclear
Threat Initiative (think tank), the president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think
tank), a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think
tank).
Ed Griffin’s interview
with Norman Dodd in 1982
(The investigation into
the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace uncovered the plans for
population control by involving the United States in war)
Donald
Kennedy was a trustee at the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace (think tank), and the commissioner
for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace (think tank)
was a funder for the Nuclear Threat Initiative
(think tank).
Margaret
A. Hamburg is the VP for the Nuclear Threat Initiative
(think tank), and the commissioner for the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration (FDA).
Michael
R. Taylor is the deputy commissioner for foods for the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration (FDA), and was the VP for public policy for
the Monsanto Company.
Akin,
Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP is the lobby firm for the Monsanto Company, and the Biotechnology
Industry Organization.
Vernon E. Jordan Jr. is a
senior counsel for Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer
& Feld, LLP, Valerie B. Jarrett’s great uncle, an honorary
trustee at the Brookings Institution (think
tank), a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think
tank).
Valerie
B. Jarrett is Vernon E. Jordan Jr’s great niece, the senior adviser for the Barack Obama administration, and a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.
Cyrus
F. Freidheim Jr. is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago,
and an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution
(think tank).
Klaus Kleinfeld
is a trustee at the Brookings Institution
(think tank), a director at Bayer AG, and a
2008 Bilderberg conference
participant (think tank).
Bayer AG
The Bayer company then became part of IG
Farben, a German chemical company conglomerate. During World War II, the IG
Farben used slave labor in factories attached to large slave labor camps,
notably the sub-camps of the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp.[3] IG Farben
owned 42.5% of the company that manufactured Zyklon B,[4] a chemical used in
the gas chambers of Auschwitz and other extermination camps. After World War
II, the Allies broke up IG Farben and Bayer reappeared as an individual
business. The Bayer executive Fritz ter Meer, sentenced to seven years in
prison during the IG Farben Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, was made head of the supervisory
board of Bayer in 1956, after his release.
Bayer
HealthCare is a subsidiary of Bayer AG.
Bayer
CropScience is a subsidiary of Bayer AG.
Sidley
Austin LLP is the lobby firm for Bayer HealthCare,
was the Biotechnology Industry Organization, and
the Monsanto Company.
Barack Obama
was an intern at Sidley Austin LLP.
Sandra
E. Peterson is the EVP for Bayer HealthCare,
the chairman & CEO for Bayer CropScience, and is the group worldwide chairman for Johnson & Johnson.
Akin,
Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP was the lobby firm for Johnson & Johnson, is the lobby firm for the Monsanto Company, and the Biotechnology
Industry Organization.
Vernon E. Jordan Jr. is a
senior counsel for Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer
& Feld, LLP, married to Ann Dibble Jordan,
Valerie B. Jarrett’s great uncle, an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), a
director at the American Friends of Bilderberg
(think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference
participant (think tank).
Ann
Dibble Jordan is married to Vernon E. Jordan Jr., an honorary
trustee at the Brookings Institution (think
tank), and was a director at
Johnson & Johnson.
Robert A.
Helman was an honorary trustee at the Brookings
Institution (think tank), is
a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago,
and a partner at Mayer Brown.
Mayer
Brown was the lobby firm for the Bayer Corporation.
Bayer
Corporation is a subsidiary of Bayer AG.
William M. Daley
Professional career
Daley returned to the practice of law, as
a partner with the firm Mayer Brown (then Mayer, Brown & Platt) from
1993 to 1997.
William
M. Daley was a partner at Mayer Brown,
chief of staff for the Barack Obama
administration, and is a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago.
R. Eden
Martin is the president of the Commercial Club of Chicago,
and counsel at Sidley Austin LLP
Michelle
Obama was a lawyer at Sidley Austin LLP.
Barack Obama
was an intern at Sidley Austin LLP.
Sidley
Austin LLP is the lobby firm for Bayer HealthCare,
the Biotechnology Industry Organization, and
the Monsanto Company.
Newton N.
Minow is a senior counsel at Sidley Austin LLP,
and a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.
Thomas A.
Cole is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago,
and a partner at Sidley Austin LLP.
Joseph
McLaughlin is senior counsel at Sidley Austin LLP,
and a director at the American Council on
Germany.
Gregory
S. Babe was a director at the American Council on
Germany, and is the president & CEO for the Bayer
Corporation.
Bayer
Corporation is the North American subsidiary for Bayer AG.
Klaus Kleinfeld
is a director at the American Council on
Germany, a director at Bayer AG, a
trustee at the Brookings Institution (think
tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference
participant (think tank).
James W.
Cicconi is a director at the American Council on
Germany, was an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and a partner at Akin, Gump, Strauss,
Hauer & Feld, LLP.
Akin,
Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP is the lobby firm for the Monsanto Company, and the Biotechnology
Industry Organization.
Vernon E. Jordan Jr. is a
senior counsel for Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer
& Feld, LLP, Valerie B. Jarrett’s great uncle, an honorary
trustee at the Brookings Institution (think
tank), a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think
tank).
Valerie
B. Jarrett is Vernon E. Jordan Jr’s great niece, the senior adviser for the Barack Obama administration, and a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.
Cyrus
F. Freidheim Jr. is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago,
and an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution
(think tank).
Mark
B. McClellan was a senior fellow at the Brookings
Institution (think tank), and the commissioner for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Michael
R. Taylor is the deputy commissioner for foods for the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration (FDA), and was the VP for public policy for
the Monsanto Company.
Javier
Solana is a director at the Human Rights Watch,
a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank),
a board member at the International Crisis Group,
and was the high representative for common foreign & security policy for
the European Union.
European
Commission is the executive body for the European
Union.
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