EU sends mixed messages on biotech
PAUL GEITNER
Associated Press
http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/business/9609181.htm

BRUSSELS, Belgium - The European Union added the first genetically modified strains to its common seed catalog Wednesday, opening the way - theoretically at least - for farmers across the continent to plant it.

At the same time, the European Commission put off a decision on new labeling rules for seeds amid bitter differences over how much stray bioengineered material could be tolerated in packages of conventional strains before it must be labeled.

Commission spokesman Reijo Kemppinen said more information on the "economic impact" of the proposed 0.3 percent threshold was needed. Industry groups had argued the costs of complying with that level would be too high.

The mixed messages reflect the divisions genetically modified foods continue to create in the EU, which is facing legal action at the World Trade Organization from the United States, Canada and other growers over its restrictions on biotech imports.

Also Wednesday, the European Commission was forced for a third time to ask EU ministers to approve a new genetically modified product from a U.S. biotech company after a panel of national experts deadlocked on the application last June.

If ministers from the 25 EU nations also are deadlocked after three months, the commission itself is authorized to approve Monsanto's "Roundup Ready" oilseed rape. Monsanto is based in St. Louis.

The commission did the same in two previous cases this year that marked the official end of the 6-year moratorium on new biotech food.

Monsanto wants to import the oilseed, also known as canola, into Europe for industrial processing and animal feed. While the EU's food safety body has given it the all-clear, a British advisory panel has expressed concerns.

The commission did add 17 varieties of Monsanto's genetically modified corn, engineered to resist insects, into its common seed directory, a last regulatory step for farmers across the EU to buy it.

The parent strain was approved in 1998 before the EU's moratorium, but the varieties are listed only in France's and Spain's national catalogs, meaning only farmers there have access to it.

EU Health Commissioner David Byrne noted the corn has been grown in Spain "for years without any known problems."

Simon Barber, director of plant biotechnology at the industry group EuropaBio, welcomed the decision as giving farmers a choice, but noted that they would take other factors into account when deciding what to grow.

"They're going to need to know whether they're going to be able to sell the produce," he said.

The delay on seed labeling was welcomed by environmental groups, which have pushed for an even lower threshold of 0.1 percent of stray bioengineered material - a position supported by the European Parliament.

"If you can find it by testing, it should be on the package," said Geert Ritsema of Friends of the Earth Europe. "That will give farmers the choice."

But Byrne, Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy and Research Commissioner Philippe Busquin reportedly were pushing for a 0.5 percent cap - a level supported by the biotech industry, which feared any lower level would push seed prices too high.

The biotech industry has been seeking EU-wide standards for five years to replace what Barber called a "hodgepodge of rules across Europe, with some member states being pragmatic, others being unrealistic."

He criticized the delay as dragging out a "difficult situation for buyers and sellers."

Anti-biotech campaigners, however, welcomed Kemppinen's announcement that the decision would likely be delayed until the new commission takes office Nov. 1.

The new agriculture chief is slated to be Denmark's Mariann Fischer Boel, who set the level at 0.1 percent in her native country.

"We hope she and the new commission will act in line with that law in Denmark," Ritsema said.