Anti-GM countries defeated in EU vote

THE European Parliament has overwhelmingly rejected an opt-out that allowed individual member countries to ban the import of genetically modified products.

MEPs voted 557 to 75 last month against a draft law proposed by the European Commission that had sought a compromise on the divisive issue.

The parliament decided that allowing member states to ban GM products would mean erecting barriers within the EU’s single market.

The Commission said recently that 19 of the 28 member states had asked to keep GM products out of their territory. But farmers around Europe – including in many countries that oppose growing GM crops – depend heavily on imports of fodder from South and North America, where 90 per cent of the soya bean crop is GM.

‘Countries that are anti-GM also feed their animals GM feed,’ said Beat Spath of EuropaBio, a trade association repre- senting biotechnology companies. ‘It’s ironic that the countries that vote against approval of GM crops still import large amounts of GM ingredients for their animals.’

The Scottish government has banned the growing of GM crops, although the UK supports GMOs. The decision, taken recently by Scottish fisheries minister Richard Lochhead, was described as anti-science. It angered aquaculture scientists in Scotland, who have been at the forefront of research into GM alternatives to fish oil in feed.

Professor Douglas Tocher, leading the GM trials at Stirling University, said the next stage of the research is to do a commercial scale-up but that would be ‘a challenge’ because of the political climate in Scotland.