Approve GM or our farming will be history, warns minister

Approve GM or our farming will be history, warns minister

Environment Secretary Owen Paterson says EU member states should approve a new strain of GM maize in a vote later this month


EU member states should approve a new strain of GM maize in a vote later this month, says Environment Secretary Owen Paterson Photo: ALAMY


By Georgia Graham, Political Correspondent
9:50PM GMT 07 Jan 2014


Genetically modified crops must be approved by the European Union if British agriculture is to avoid becoming “the museum of world farming” the Environment Secretary said on Tuesday.

Member states should approve a new strain of maize in a vote later this month, said Owen Paterson.

He argued that previous approval for GM crops had been blocked by the European Commission for political reasons.

“If approval is granted … then it will be the first GM food crop authorised for planting by the EU for 15 years,” Mr Paterson told the Oxford Farming Conference. “Europe risks becoming the museum of world farming as innovative companies make decisions to invest and develop new technologies in other markets.”
The proposal covers a strain of insect-resistant maize and would become the second GM crop to be grown in the European Union after approval for another variety, resistant to the corn borer, was granted in 1998.


Mr Paterson added: “Let me be clear, there are other tools in the toolbox. GM is not a panacea. But the longer that Europe continues to close its doors to GM, the greater the risk that the rest of the world will bypass us altogether.”

The European Commission said that it was “duty-bound” to propose a vote after Europe’s second-highest court censured Brussels for lengthy delays in the approval process.
Approval is likely to face strong opposition from France, Austria, Italy and other countries that have previously banned the growing of GM crops. Sweden and Spain are expected to support the proposal.

GM crops are strains that have been engineered for desirable traits not naturally present, such as disease resistance or greater yields, by changing a plant’s DNA in a laboratory.
Official government policy on them is “precautionary, evidence-based and sensitive to public concerns”.

The Government describes the technology as “not wholly good or bad” and says that it will consider licensing crops on a case-by-case basis.

In the late Nineties, Tony Blair, then Labour prime minister, promoted GM food, but he retreated in the face of public scepticism and campaigns against “Frankenfoods”.
Opponents fear that the crops can cause environmental damage and even harm human health.

But polls suggest that British hostility is waning and senior government figures privately believe the technology is essential to assure future food security and to avoid a dependence on imports.

Mr Paterson has previously indicated that he wants to relax British regulations on the cultivation of GM crops, and has said they have “environmental benefits”.

The Environment Secretary’s views have been cautiously supported by David Cameron. In a speech in June the Prime Minister said it was “time to look again” at the issue. He said: “We need to be open to arguments from science.”

The Coalition has so far allowed small-scale trials of GM crops but widespread use is effectively banned.

There is no ban on selling foods made from GM crops and some GM material is contained in imported products, but most supermarkets have banned the ingredients from their own-brand lines.

In October, Mr Paterson attracted criticism for calling opponents of GM “absolutely wicked” and claiming that children were being left to go blind because of “hang-ups” about the technology.


source:-
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/agriculture/geneticmodification/10557292/Approve-GM-or-our-farming-will-be-history-warns-minister.html