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In Brussels today, Friends of the Earth Europe (FoEEurope) urged EU Environment Ministers to introduce tougher safety rules on GM foods.
In today's press release, Adrian Bebb, GM Campaigner for FoEEurope, sugg
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Previous posts, including the recent post on the Eurobarometer on biotechnology, have reported that European citizens remain concerned about the introduction of GM crops in Europe, despite an overall confidence in biotechnology as a whole. Tomorrow, in Luxembourg, environment ministers are to discuss new proposals to address the approval of GM products.
Co-existence of GM crops with traditional and organic systems of agriculture remains a critical issue in Europe, as reported here previously in Co-Existence and Co-existing: Disharmony? One of the important aspects of this debate in Europe is not only the cultural context for European agriculture, but also the commercial viability of organic markets.
However, increasingly, the commercial value of organic is being reported in other jurisdictions. US consumers are also becoming "greener," according to a report, by Brad Dorfman, from the Reuters Industry Summit in Consumer and Retail held last week. While GM continues to be associated with risks to the environment, such "greening" will arguably include similar choices with respect to GM food, as currently seen in Europe. Indeed, this comes at the same time as the recent decision
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And non-GM is said to be "booming" in the developing world as well, as reported by Reuters India. Indian soybean meal exports are expected to double, attributable to demand and competitive prices and because "Everywhere Indian meal was better accepted this year because it is non-genetically modified and of good quality," according to the Chairman of the Soybean Processor' Association of India (SOPA), Rajesh Agrawal.
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In the United States again, the Foundation on Economic Trends (FOET), founded by economist, Jeremy Rifkin, released a white paper earlier this month, describing the "obsolescence" of GM and the growth of technologies compatible with agroecological approaches, blurring the common claims of "technophobe" levelled against those resisting GM crops. The white paper outlines the importance of marker-assisted selection (MAS) as the "new" agricultural technology, "within the context of a broader, more holistic, agroecological approach to farming."
This technology is being applied in research in Australia, in the case of wheat. In my
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It seems that non-GM research is proving popular not only with consumers, but also with funders and research institutions, responding to what appear to be growing commercial advantages.
2 comments:
I've blogged a little about the issue of marker assisted selection. It is definitely more benign sounding than genetic modification of food.
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