Brussels, 15/04/2011 (Agence Europe) - After EU environment ministers called for it in the unanimous conclusions of December 2008, the report on the socio-economic implications of GM (genetically modified) crops on the EU food chain as a whole was published by the European Commission on Friday 15 April.
The main lesson to be drawn from this 12-page document is that because of a lack of sufficiently complete and good quality information, it is difficult, at this stage, to draw any conclusions. The reason is that the EU is not a region where GM crops are prevalent so its experience is limited. The only genetically modified organisms (GMOs) authorised are MON 810 (Spain is the only country to grow this variety) and BASF's Amflora potato (which is grown in the Czech Republic, Germany and Sweden). Thus reflection on whether Europe has any economic or social interest in the cultivation of GMOs or not must be deepened, the Commission says. It intends, therefore, to get down to the task, enlisting the support of the Parliament, the Council and all interested parties. In order to move forward in a sensible way, the Commission considers that discussions should shift from the polarised perceptions documented in the report to a more tangible and objective basis. It recommends, therefore, defining a robust set of factors and indicators to capture in a uniform way the socio-economic consequences of GMO cultivation across the EU and along the food chain. The Commission also suggests initiating a reflection on the potential use of the improved understanding of the socio-economic dimension in the management of GMO cultivation. “With the publication of this report, the Commission is delivering one of the last pending requests made by the Environment Council in December 2008”, said Health and Consumer Policy Commissioner John Dalli, inviting all interested parties to “embark on an objective discussion on the potential role of socio-economic factors in the management of GMO cultivation in the European Union”.
National contributions. The report was compiled from information provided, in the main, by member states (with the exceptions of Bulgaria and Italy) and Norway in response to a questionnaire that covered (a) ex-post socio-economic effects (i.e. those that have been experienced) of GMO cultivation in those few member states which have or which have had experience of commercial cultivation of GM plants (Czech Republic, Germany, Spain, France, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and Sweden) and (b) ex-ante effects (i.e. those that are anticipated) if existing or new GM plants were to be cultivated.
It reveals that: - the EU represents only a fraction of the worldwide surface area given over to GM crops (less than 100,000 hectares of a total area of 134 million hectares), hence the somewhat limited amount of statistically relevant information on the ex-post socio-economic impacts of GMO cultivation; - economic data specific to the European paradigm concerned studies in member states with experience in cultivation of herbicide-tolerant (HT) or pest-resistant (Bt) GM crops; these studies showed that, when the weed or pest pressure is high, farmers cultivating HT and Bt GM crops could benefit from savings through reduced consumption of pesticides and/or higher yields.
Scientific publications. The Commission assesses the socio-economic perspectives of GMO cultivation as established in international scientific publications and the findings of EU funded research projects (CO-EXTRA, SIGMEA, CONSUMERCHOICE). These publications, it says, provide a useful insight into the economic effect of GMO cultivation at farm level world-wide, in particular for HT and Bt crops. Once again, however, available information on social impacts and effects along the food chain is rather limited, if not inexistent.
Of the demands made by the Environment Council of 4 December 2008, the only issue that remains pending relates to the establishment of a threshold for labelling to warn of the accidental presence of GMOs in conventional seeds.
The report may be found at: http://www.ec.europa.eu/food/food/biotechnology/index_en.htm (A.N./transl.rt)