Some EU Farmers Call For Revamping of Europe's Current Biotech Regulations

COPA-COGECA, Europe's leading agriculture trade association, warned Feb. 7 that European Union farmers face significant financial losses that could put some livestock farmers out of business or force them to relocate if EU member states do not support a proposal to tolerate a small percentage of illegal genetically engineered crops that contaminate legal crop shipments imported from the United States and other countries such as Argentina and Brazil.

COPA-COGECA, Europe's leading agriculture trade association, warned Feb. 7 that European Union farmers face significant financial losses that could put some livestock farmers out of business or force them to relocate if EU member states do not support a proposal to tolerate a small percentage of illegal genetically engineered crops that contaminate legal crop shipments imported from the United States and other countries such as Argentina and Brazil.

The appeal from European farmers came a few days in advance of a European Commission presentation of criteria EU member states could use when implementing national bans against the cultivation of GE crops. The criteria have been requested by the EU member states in response to a pending Commission regulation that would give member states the right to ban GE crop cultivation for reasons other than sound science.

COPA-COGECA insists that it is crucial for EU member states to back a proposal that would allow the presence of 0.1 percent of so-called "adventitious" GE crop seed, that is illegal in the EU but legal in the country of origin. The proposal would only apply to GE crops to be used to make animal feed.

The issue over "adventitious" GE crop presence is highly controversial and has caused considerable problems over the years as shipments of soybean and corn have been impounded in European harbors such as Rotterdam or Hamburg after inspectors found traces of illegal GE crop amidst large shipments of legal ones.

"At a time when most EU livestock producers are facing serious economic losses, some EU opposition to finding a practical threshold for trace levels of not yet EU authorized GM plants in imported feed will drive EU livestock farmers and feed operators out of business," said COPA-COGECA Secretary General Pekka Pesonen in a statement. "I consequently urge member states to agree on urgent measures to prevent the EU livestock industry from re-locating abroad." 

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