Europe
February 21, 2007
On Tuesday the 20 February 2007, Connie
Hedegaard, Danish Minister for the Environment announced at a
public discussion organised by Friends of Europe, that she was
concerned if Europe has a negative effect on countries in the
developing world by imposing its standards on the rest of the
world with regard to regulation on Genetically Modified
Organisms (GMO).
As a follow-up to this event,
plant researchers from the developing world met in Brussels at a
meeting organised by
European Action
on Global Life Sciences (EAGLES). The
purpose of the meeting was to discuss how European regulation on
GM foods influence legislators in the developing world to call
for unnecessary tough testing.
Thousands of people die every day
in the developing world due to hunger or the use of harmful
pesticides in agriculture. No death or any illness throughout
the world has ever been connected to the use of GMO. The zero
tolerance of GM foods unauthorised in Europe and the labelling
of GM foods imported to Europe have a huge influence on
legislators and research funding organisations in the developing
countries. Even countries which have no export of foods to
Europe are afraid of approving or supporting the development of
GM foods because of European policy.
Former head of unit at the
European Commission, DG Research and head of the unit of
biotechnology at the OECD Mark F. Cantley said: ” The
global influence of the European policy on GMO has a massive
economic and political impact on our trading partners. The
economic and political disincentives Europe imposes to the use
of more modern and precise technologies and more environmentally
friendly agricultural production makes it impossible for the
developing world to develop new improved crops. We have
painted ourselves into a corner in Europe, from which we shall
not easily escape, and from which we have a malign influence on
poor countries all over the world”.
Professor Jennifer Thomson from
University of Cape Town says: “ Genetically
modified maize resistant to the devastating African endemic
maize streak virus is in the pipeline for field trials. The
problems of regulation are therefore of immediate importance. We
are concerned about what we consider the over-regulation
prevalent in Europe and question whether this may prevent, or
severely delay, the approval of these plants that are
desperately needed by poor Africans, many of whom eat maize
three times a day.”
Professor Zen Zhangliang
President of Beijings Agricultural University said: “ In
China we have a long tradition for plant development. Genetic
engineering is a better and more precise technology. We have
already many Chinese GM products on the market and we will
invest massively in agricultural biotechnology in the coming
years. It does not seem rational to me that the Europeans want
to slow down their agricultural development with superfluous and
heavy regulations.”
Professor Marc van Montagu,
Department of Molecular Genetics, Ghent University and president
of European Federation of Biotechnology (EFB) concluded at the
meeting with following comment: “A
sustainable agriculture and a less-polluting industry badly need
the GM-technology and the transgenic plants developed,
worldwide, over the last ten years. Exactly in the same period,
wellintentioned regulators in the EU set up an unnecessary and
very costly application of the regulatory system. No small or
medium enterprise, public research centre, charity or foundation
can afford to open a file for approval through the established
system. It is a crying injustice towards the developing world,
towards nearly 85% of the world population.
European Action on Global Life
Sciences (EAGLES) aims at enhancing the collaboration between
European researchers and researchers in the developing world to
fight hunger and disease. EAGLES has been launched by the
European Federation of Biotechnology (EFB). The project is
supported by the European Commission and is a collaboration
between EFB and scientific partners in Europe, China, Egypt,
Ghana, South Africa and the Philippines. Members of the Steering
Committees include prominent scientists from China, Egypt,
Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Kenya, Mexico, South Africa, Syria and
Thailand.
RELATED RELEASE:
Biotech regulations of the European
Union stall agricultural improvements in developing countries |
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