June '08 | Commission reviews safety of GM potatoes and maize varieties
BREAKING THE ROUTINE
A celebration is in order!
At last, the European Commission (EC) has broken its undemocratic and non-precautionary habit of over-riding the concerns of its member states, and stalled the approval of three new GM crops.
The crops sent back into the authorisation queue, despite the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) opinion that they are safe, are BASF's Amflora potatoes which contain a gene to alter their starch composition for industrial uses plus an antibiotic resistance gene, Syngenta's Bt11 (insecticidal) maize, and Poineer/Dow's 1507 (insecticidal and herbicide-tolerant) maize.
Perhaps we can breathe a small sigh of relief that, for the first time, the competence of our regulatory 'watchdog' with its unbroken record of waving through GM foods on the sole basis of industry data, has been cast in doubt. Instead of the standard rubber-stamping of the EFSA opinion, the EC has asked the Authority to :
- Review its previous opinion on the environmental and human safety of the Amflora starch potato in view of concerns raised by international institutions such as the World Health Organisation, the Insitut Pasteur and the European Medicines Agency, regarding the presence of its antibiotic resistance gene.
- Review new scientific information on GM maize Bt11 and 1507, and confirm their safety
And in addition,
- Analyse further scientific evidence on three new GM hybrid insecticidal maize varieties all of which contain antibiotic resistance genes.
- Review its previous assessment of two GM insecticidal maize varieties for indirect and long-term environmental impacts
- Confirm that the scientific evidence on herbicide-resistant LL62 GM rice is complete
- Find a technical solution to the issue of low-level presence of non-approved GMOs in feed and foodstuffs before the summer.
A good first step. But is this good enough?
As Greenpeace pointed out, the EC is simply sending the GM crops back to the same body over and over: this isn't much of a regulatory system. The GM potato was only one EU vote away from being released commercially: major safety doubts should have been dealt with long ago. GM-free Cymru criticised the decision to simply refer the crops back for 'review', instead of requiring more safety data, as “a political fudge which has nothing at all to do with science” and was merely “a feeble attempt not to upset the Americans and World Trade Organisation”.
OUR COMMENT
As far as we can see, the EFSA hasn't got the cash or the clout to undertake science of its own: all it can do is keep scratching its head round a table and talking.
Lots more work to do, but all your little bits of campaigning over the weeks, months, years and, in some cases, decades, are clearly paying off.
The moral is: keep up the pressure because sooner or later, something has to shift.
P.S.
True to form, when the unwelcome news of the first real damper on GM crop cultivation in Europe broke, the pro-GM PR machine sprang into action. Medical News Today reproduced a propagandist piece by Europabio, the biotech industry lobby organisation, and the Edinburgh Evening News gave a platform to a badly informed article by MEP, Struan Steven (who doesn't seem to be familiar with the death rate amongst his constituents from anti-biotic resistant superbugs, nor the fact that European livestock are already extensively fed on imported GM feed). (Hint. Both these publications seem to be very relaxed about accepting comments on line.)
SOURCES
- EU Food Agency under fire as Commission debates GMOs, Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace Press Release 7.05.08
- EU “regulatory shambles” over GMOs, GM Free Cymru Press Release, 7.05.08
- Commission hesitant to approve more GM crops, www.euractiv.com article-172209, 8.04.08
- Struan Stevenson, Farmers elsewhere reap the benefits as EU drags feet on GM, Edinburgh Evening News, 10.05.08
- Greenpeace International circular, 8.05.08
- EFSA under fire as EC debates GMOs, Reuters 7.05.08