The European Commission today issued a report by the Joint Research Centre that investigates the implications of co-existing traditional and organic systems of agricultural production.
The report highlights concern that further introduction of GM crop production in Europe could raise the cost of traditional and organic growers because of the incidence of adventitious presence of GM material. In reality, GM crop production can co-exist with other systems, as long as reasonable standards of purity are developed.
To allow differing systems to co-exist legislators need to set practical thresholds for GM material found in non GM crops. Various environmental organisations are calling for extremely low thresholds.
Up to 5% non-organic content is the threshold to qualify a food as organic. EuropaBio is asking for thresholds considerably below that for GM. Similar thresholds exist in traditional agricultural production for a wide range of substances and so allow different systems of production to co-exist, satisfying a wide range of consumer choice.
Simon Barber, Director of the Plant Biotechnology Unit at EuropaBio, explains that 'for farmers to achieve 100% purity on their farms they would have to isolate their crops along 'quarantine' lines' and he continues 'that would create havoc for farmers'.
According to EuropaBio, the report fails to account for the farming pattern that would be a likely result of GM introduction in Europe: many so called conventional farmers will produce GM crops, which will be in concentrated areas, not spread evenly.
The report also fails to take account of the benefits of GM farming on the environment or on farmers' income. Research is increasingly showing that farmers who use new GM technologies are reporting lower costs due to less spraying and reduced energy use. Furthermore, the increase in yields as well as the possibility to produce higher value crops in the future is actually helping to increase farm incomes.
These benefits are the real reason farmers have adopted GM technologies so rapidly.
www.europabio.org

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