- The Observer,
- Sunday November 16, 2003
The EU will allow a genetically modified food product to go on sale next month. The move will end a five-year European moratorium on new GM foods.
Key EU officials have indicated that the moratorium on GM food will end within weeks. A committee meeting next month is ready to approve a corn product developed by Anglo-Swiss firm Syngenta.
Its introduction will provide a massive shot in the arm to the downtrodden biotech sector, which has haemorrhaged investor support of late. It will also appease the US government, which has lodged a formal complaint with the World Trade Organisation over Europe's refusal to permit new GM products.
But, significantly, the first product to get EU approval in five years is not from a US firm but European. 'There is significant anti-American feeling in Europe,' said an EU insider. However, the ruling is expected to herald a wave of other product approvals.
Syngenta's GM corn is currently produced in the US and, despite concerns that the product has not been adequately tested for safety, could be available to consumers from next year, when all GM food will be identified with a specific label. The GM corn could be used in oil and starches.
Consumers still appear resistant to accepting GM foods, although a spokeswoman for Syngenta said that they are 'confused' about the issue and suffering from information overload. The company is likely to back moves by the industry to invest in a promotional drive. The company said it was pleased that Europe appeared poised to back its product although it refused to take anything for granted.
A separate filing to the EU by Syngenta to grow and harvest GM corn in Europe should be heard next year. Spain already grows GM crops for commercial use in Europe, according to Syngenta.
A senior EU trade source said: 'There will be a development next month that will go some way to diffuse tension between the US and Europe on GM food.'
David Bowe, a Labour MEP, said: 'This could usher in a significant increase of GM foods. The Americans are hanging back because of the wave of anti-American sentiment.'
Over the last months there has been a succession of UK government reports critical of GM technology, culminating in October's publication of the results of official trials proving that GM oilseed rape and sugar beet damage wildlife.
But Tony Blair and Science Minister Lord Sainsbury are avid supporters of the technology in the face of wide spread opposition from the public. That opposition was partly responsible for last month's withdrawal from the UK of giant biotech firm Monsanto. The company, the leading multinational behind the production of GM crops, is closing its wheat-growing operation in Cambridge and selling several European crop-breeding centres.
Two weeks ago a two-year ban on GM crop trials in New Zealand was lifted despite warnings that the technology posed a particular risk to the country's ecological balance.
