By Philippa Jones
Representatives from the UK organic sector have today urged the UK
environment minister David Miliband not to allow organic food to be
contaminated by genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
A delegation representing 70 organic businesses urged Miliband not to
increase the current threshold for GM contamination of organic food from 0.1
per cent to 0.9 per cent.

Currently, only food that has a contamination level of less than 0.1
per cent can be sold as organic, but the UK government is suggesting that
this level should be raised and that only food with a GM level of more than
0.9 per cent should be labelled as containing GMOs.

"There is overwhelming evidence that one of the main reasons that
consumers buy organic is to avoid eating food containing any GM," said Alex
Smith of Alara, chair of the Food and Drink Federation's organic group.

"If the proposals set out by the government were implemented?organic
businesses will face enhanced risks of GM contamination, product recall and
loss of their most valuable asset, the consumer trust that underlies their
brand value."

Peter Melchett, policy director of the Soil Association, which
certifies most organic food in the UK, argued that it made no economic sense
for the government to tamper with the current regulations.

"The government is putting at risk one of the fastest growing areas of
the UK economy," he claimed. "Tesco's organic sales grew by 39 per cent last
year. Organic farm shops and box schemes are seeing similar rates of
growth."

The 70 companies supporting today's initiative have a combined
turnover of around ?0.95bn (?1.4bn) and, according to a survey in March 2006
by Zomnibus, 65.4 per cent of all adults in the UK have knowingly bought at
least one item of organic food in the last 12 months.

The Soil Association and Organic Farmers and Growers, another UK
certifier of organic crops, confirmed they would maintain the current non-GM
standard of 0.1 per cent whatever the government's final decision.

The UK government's stance is in line with the EU organic regulation
adopted last week by European agriculture ministers, who agreed that organic
food can still be labelled as such if it contains up to 0.9 per cent of
GMOs, the presence of which is "adventitious or technically unavoidable".

EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said last year that a
GMO threshold of less than 0.9 per cent would increase costs in organic
agriculture.

The organic sector is also angry that the government failed to consult
it last autumn when finalising its proposals on the co-existence of GM,
non-GM and organic crops in the UK.

During the consultation, the government met with a number of GM
companies, including AstraZeneca, BASF Plant Science, Bayer CropScience, Dow
AgroSciences, Du Pont, Monsanto and Syngenta, but did not speak directly
with one organic business, according to today's delegation.


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