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Organic farming has a role to play in the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), but it cannot address the perplexing issue of food security, an EU spokesperson said. Meanwhile, the innovation-driven GM industry feels marginalised, facing impossible hurdles in the EU.
In address the challenge of rising population, the new CAP for the period 2014-2020 is focused on innovation as well as environmental protection. But there is little research funding for GMOs, due to the huge public opposition in Europe.
And the innovation-driven GM crop industry feels it’s unwanted. Brandon Mitchener, Public Affairs Lead for Monsanto Europe, says “The EU has chosen to fund NGOs that demonise GMOs, even though the EU’s own best scientists say they are perfectly safe. Years of such political hypocrisy have marginalised GM seeds in Europe to the point that most companies have given up trying to sell them here.”
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Similarly, Beat Späth, Director of Agricultural Biotechnology at EuropaBio, blamed EU politicians for being followers of “public opinion”. He said that the EU heavily promoted untested organic farming while allowing national bans on cultivating GM crops that “have undergone strict safety assessments confirming they are (at least) as safe as conventional crops”.
“The ‘licence to ban’ the cultivation of safe and approved GMO crops is a very negative precedent of ‘politics over science’. In this sense, many politicians seem to have abdicated from their role as leaders in favour of becoming followers of ‘public opinion’ voiced by scaremongers,” he told EurActiv.
Read full, original post: Commission: Organic farming ‘not enough’ to address food security
