Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 8 • Number 16 • 19th September 2008
EU Gives Green Light to GM Soybean
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The European Union has given its approval to allow a genetically modified (GM) soybean produced by Bayer CropScience to be imported. The 8 September default ruling is the latest in a string of GM ‘rubber-stamp’ authorisations - mostly on maize products - granted since 2004 (see BRIDGES Trade BioRes, 5 October, http://ictsd.net/i/news/biores/9132/).
“Rubber-stamp” approval is granted by default in cases where a proposal has been before the European Commission, the EU’s legislative body, for a set period of time and the 27 member countries are not able to reach a conclusive decision. In such cases, this conditional approval is granted for a period of 10 years.
The GM soybean, marketed as LibertyLink, is designed to resist glufosinate herbicides. Because the genetically modified species is not affected by the ‘non-selective’ herbicide, the two products can be used in tandem to eliminate weeds and thus produce higher soy yields.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has approved LibertyLink soybeans for use in food and animal feed products. Shipments will be imported either whole or as meal and then reprocessed in Europe for use in food or animal feed. All products produced from the soybean are subject to the EU’s rules governing labelling and traceability. The approval does not permit cultivation of the soybean within the EU.
The world’s top soybean producers, particularly in the US, rely heavily on GM technology for growing soy. As such, they are often critical of the EU’s zero tolerance policy on GM crops. They claim that the European guidelines - which ban imports with even trace amounts of unauthorised genetically modified products from the European marketplace - adds significantly to production and transportation costs.
Europe imports 26 million tonnes of soy and meal annually. And European livestock producers say the global move towards biotech production of soy and maize combined with the EU stance on biotech products has made it increasingly difficult to source feed. In the past, shipments of grains and rice have been seized at EU ports when samples were found to contain GM materials.
European officials say the move - along with a few other pending GM applications - is intended to help combat a European animal feed shortage. The European livestock industry, which depends heavily on soy products as a rich source of protein, welcomed the decision as part of a long-term solution to ensuring access to affordable animal feed.
But green groups say it is an example of the EU caving to pressure from lobby groups. “There was absolutely no reason to authorise it, absolutely none whatsoever,” says Helen Holder, GMO Campaign Coordinator at Friends of the Earth. “GMOs are not the solution to a number of issues that we need to solve in agriculture and environment and the more we allow into the EU, the more other parts of the world get destroyed environmentally and socially.”
Holder says that the new rules will allow major producers of GM soy, particularly those in the US, to access the European market more easily, noting that Brazil and Argentina can easily supply the EU with feed that meets the zero tolerance policy.
Recent news out of Brazil shows that the country’s soy producers still see a market for non-GM products in the EU. A group of Brazilian soy producers, including Andre Maggi - the world’s largest soy producing group, has announced the establishment of an association aimed directly at increasing GM-free grain and feed exports to the EU.
The Brazilian Association of Non-genetically Modified Grains (ABRANGE) guarantees that certified exports from member companies will be completely free of genetically modified organisms. “We want to make it clear that as long as Europe wants to buy [non-transgenics], we’re here to grow them,” says the Association’s president, Cesar Borges da Sousa.
But demand in Europe will depend on the future of rubber-stamping and whether the default 10-year conditional approval that the process provides will spread further. On 29 September the EU will vote on similar case relating to Monsanto’s Roundup Ready 2 soybean varieties.
ICTSD Reporting; “EU soon to import GM soy,” ALLABOUTFEED.NET, 4 September 2008; “EU to approve Bayer GM soy imports next week,” REUTERS, 3 September 2008; “Food firms launch Brazil GMO-free grain group,” REUTERS, 9 September 2008.
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