Aug. 12, 2007
On June 12, ministers from the European Union's Agriculture Council adopted a law that will allow "adventitious or technically unavoidable" genetically modified organism (GMO) content of up to 0.9 percent in foods that are classed and labelled as 'organic.' The decision has disappointed the European Parliament and environmental groups calling for a 0.1 percent "contamination" threshold for organic food — the lowest level at which GMOs can be detected.
Critics claim that the legislation violates the principle of consumer choice, but are also concerned that the decision is a move that could ultimately do significant damage to Europe's most competitive and environment-friendly sector. The organic market in the Czech Republic, for example, ballooned to EUR 27 million in 2006, a rise of 49 percent and the highest such growth in Europe. Analysts predict that the Czech market for organic food and drink will quadruple by 2011. The creation of new jobs and proven health benefits are two more reasons that the organic market is enjoying wider public support in Europe.
The EC is now considering options for containing commercially grown GM crops (a strategy known as "coexistence"), and plans to issue a report in 2008 on how successfully guidelines are implemented in each country. At present, there is no such EU-wide legislation.
"Strict coexistence measures are a necessity for protecting conventional and organic farming from genetic contamination, with stiff penalties for GMO farmers and biotech companies if contamination does occur," said Mauro Albrizio, vice president of the European Environmental Bureau, according to Ends Daily Europe.
