Despite months of negotiations, there was no agreement among EU agriculture ministers on the new GMOs deregulation file in yesterday's Council of Ministers meeting in Brussels. This was recognised by the Danish Minister for Agriculture Jacob Jensen (Denmark is strongly in favour of deregulation), who told Agriwatch, "There is currently no majority in favour of voting this through. So I don't dare put a deadline on this." He called the deregulation proposal a "difficult political decision".

Concerns in several member states – including lack of risk assessment and labelling for the consumer, competition in the seed market, patent accumulation, and the impacts on organic farming – have left the proposal in a negotiating limbo since Christmas. According to the news agency Agence Europe, this delay means an agreement will not be finalised until after this summer's European Parliament elections at the earliest.

GMWatch's Claire Robinson listened to the discussion of the Council of Ministers. Several critical Member States spoke up, notably Slovenia, Slovakia, Croatia, Austria, and Romania. Slovenia, Slovakia, Austria, and Croatia mentioned the need for scientific risk assessment and/or the need to wait for EFSA’s opinion on the French food safety agency ANSES's critical reports. ANSES had pointed to the risks of new GMOs. Austria was concerned about impacts on the organic sector, which is strong in that country. Poland wanted a proper debate on the questions of patents, labelling for Category 1 new GMOs, and safety assessment. Germany mentioned that there are important open questions and a lack of agreement within the German government.

In general, critical countries appeared to be unhappy that their concerns were not being taken into account. GMWatch update

 

 

Both the French and German national environmental and health agencies have published reports that call into question the EU Commission’s conclusion that most new GMOs would not cause more risks for the health and the environment than any conventionally bred plants. This assumption formed the basis of the Commission’s wide deregulation proposal, which aims to exclude new GMOs from the current EU GMO labelling requirements, safety checks, and traceability processes. Mute Schimpf, food campaigner at Friends of the Earth Europe said: “The recent reports leave no room for doubt – new GMOs, same old risks. It’s time to put an end to the absurd fantasy that they require shortcuts instead of scrutiny. We urge ministers to prioritise the best interests of farmers, consumers, and nature, not those of the agribusiness.” Both national authorities recommend case-by-case safety checks concerning potential health and environmental risks. It stands in contrast to the EU Council of agriculture ministers’ proposal to allow the unlimited marketing and cultivation of new GMOs without any safety checks at all. Friends of the Earth Europe via GMWatch

 

 

Friends of the Earth US has released a briefing backing Mexico's ban on GM corn for human consumption, which the green group recently submitted to a dispute settlement panel charged with considering the US government's challenge to the policy. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced plans to phase out the herbicide glyphosate as well as GM corn in 2020. Last year he issued an updated decree making clear the ban does not apply to corn imports for livestock feed and industrial use. Still, the Biden administration objected and, after fruitless formal negotiations, requested the panel under the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). The briefing explains that "since the commercial introduction of GE corn in 1996 and event-specific approvals in the 1990s and 2000s, dramatic changes have occurred in corn production systems. There has been an approximate four-fold increase in the number of toxins and pesticides applied on the average hectare of contemporary [GM] industrial corn compared to the early 1990s. Unfortunately, this upward trend is bound to continue, and may accelerate." In addition, the US statement's assurances about risks from Bacillus thuringiensis or vegetative insecticidal protein (Bt/VIP) residues "are not based on data and science", the briefing warns. Common Dreams

 

 

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