A popular theme among anti-GMO activists is to make the claim that Europe has banned GMOs, as if to imply European scientists know something that American regulators do not. The EU does not actually ban GMOs and the EU scientific community is thoroughly behind the technology.
According to the EU register of authorised GMOs there are currently ten GM cottons, thirty GM maizes, four GM rapeseeds, twelve GM soybeans, one GM sugar beet, one GM bacterial biomass, and one GM yeast biomass authorized in the EU for importation and use in food and feed. In the interest of intellectual honesty, it should be noted that only one of these, MON 810, a Bt maize that protects itself from the corn borer pest, is authorized for cultivation. MON 810 is grown in Spain, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Romania, Portugal, and formerly Germany, but has also been banned for cultivation (but not for importation or use) in Austria, France, Germany, Luxembourg, and Greece. This is the sole origin of activists’ claims that Europe bans GMOs.
Additionally, the European Commission (EC) and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) put together a major overview of EU research into GMOs. From “A Decade of EU-Funded GMO Research:”
The main conclusion to be drawn from the efforts of more than 130 research projects, covering a period of more than 25 years of research, and involving more than 500 independent research groups, is that biotechnology, and in particular GMOs, are not per se more risky than e.g. conventional plant breeding technologies.
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. Read full, original post: Dear American anti-GMO activists: no, the EU does not ban GMOs
