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Farmers in five European Union countries, including France and Germany, have
begun commercial growing of genetically modified (GMO) maize and industry
officials said on Thursday the trend will increase next year, September
2005 by David Evans.

Spain has long been Europe's GMO pioneer, growing thousands of hectares
for its animal feed industry. But farmers elsewhere have been wary of the
new strains, which still face skepticism from consumers and at times violent
opposition from campaigners.

Europe's harvest this autumn will see small amounts of Bt maize,
gene-altered for resistance to the corn borer pest, reaped in France,
Germany, Portugal and the Czech Republic to be used for animal feed.

The sown areas are -- apart from Spain -- limited to hundreds of hectares
but the trend does allow the biotech lobby to claim something of a
breakthrough on an issue that has caused major trade friction between the EU
and United States.

"I find it encouraging that this year, the tenth of commercial cultivation,
five European member states have given farmers the choice to grow GM crops,"
said Simon Barber, Director of Plant Biotechnology at EU biotech lobby
EuropaBio.

The Bt maize was one of 18 crops approved by the EU before its unofficial
moratorium on new GMO authorizations that ran from 1998 until last year. But
the crops remain controversial.

Reports earlier this month that France had at least 500 hectares grown to
GMO maize made it to the front-pages in a country home to anti-globalization
campaigner Jose Bove, now on trial again for destroying test fields of GMO
maize.

There were only 17 hectares grown in France last year.

Environmental fears

Environmental campaigners say the new gene-altered strains threaten to
destroy local ecosystems through cross-pollination, creating a minefield of
liability litigation.

"These GMOs can spread through nature and interbreed with natural
organisms," environmental lobby Greenpeace says.

"Their release is 'genetic pollution' and is a major threat because GMOs
cannot be recalled once released."

But industry officials say the example of Spain, where this year's GMO maize
harvest will top 50,000 hectares, has shown that both conventional and GMO
maize can be grown in a country.

"Spanish farmers have been growing GM maize for six years and they have
proved that coexistence is possible," Barber said.

The Spanish maize producers' association estimates between 70,000 and 80,000
hectares were sown to GMOs this year, though some were lost to the severe
drought, which decimated all of the country's agricultural output.

"(With GM crops) we are protected against adversity much better than we were
before," the association's president, Agustin Marine said. "There are very
clear economic benefits."

So far, around 20 percent of the country's maize area is sown to GMO, but
Marine said this figure will rise, particularly if new strains with a
built-in resistance to powerful pesticides are approved for commercial
planting in the EU.

"I can assure you 80 percent of the maize grown would be GMO, because weeds
are very expensive to kill," Marine said.

Elsewhere in Europe, the take-up has been slow so far.

Industry officials said 767 hectares had been declared in Portugal and
estimated 150 hectares in the Czech Republic.

In Germany, only 568 hectares were registered for commercial production of
GMO crops in 2005, said Jochen Heimberg, spokesman for government food
safety agency BVL.

"This is grown on 58 locations," he said. "Originally 75 locations were
registered but some were withdrawn."

The compulsory registration of GMO output and the government's publication
of locations, has caused some farmers to think twice about switching to the
new crops.

"Farmers making registrations get bombarded with lawyers' letters from
nearby farms threatening damages and visits from environmental groups
threatening demonstrations or paying for lawyers to help nearby people sue
them," a grains analyst said.

[today.reuters.co.uk]

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