Europe could run short of food, and, as a result, consumers will
suffer from food price increases and be forced to buy imported food from
sources where production is not as well-regulated as within Europe.
This was the warning issued by Robin Irvine, president of the Northern
Ireland Grain Trade Association, when he met Michelle Gildernew, Minister
for Agriculture this week.

Mr Irvine emphasised: "I am not just issuing a warning from our
association, I am repeating the warning issued by Markos Kyprianou, the EU
Commissioner for Food, and Marianne Fisher Boel, the EU Commissioner for
Agriculture.
"
The irony of the situation is that the food that will have to be
imported will be produced from the crop varieties which the unwieldy
European system takes so long to approve, thus leaving Europe's food
producers totally uncompetitive.

Robin Irvine added: "The EU system of approval for new varieties of
crops is totally out of sync with the rest of the world. While food
production in other countries enjoys the benefits of new science and
technology the European system plods along several years our of date."

To clarify some misconceptions, Mr Irvine explained: "Some people see
this as an argument about the pros and cons of GM materials. This argument
is not about GM, it is about the survival of our food industry, GM materials
are already in the European food chain.

"The Northern Ireland Grain Trade Association respects the right of
consumers to choose whether they wish to go down the GM route or not. Our
members manufacture animal feed without GM materials for those who wish to
avoid them.

"The point is that for those consumers who choose GM, the main
food-producing countries in the world are using biotechnology to increase
the efficiency of food production - Europe is out of step with the rest of
the world in that it takes two years longer than any other region to approve
these and is in danger of making local food producers so uncompetitive that
many will be forced out of business ? consumers will be denied an affordable
local product, produced to a very high standard and will be dependent on
imported food produced under a much less regulated regime ? using practices
which would not be permitted in Europe.''

According to NIGTA, the loss of one million tonnes of US maize
products which made up about one-third of cattle rations in Ireland is only
the tip of the iceberg. If the EU approvals system is not updated then new
varieties of soya will be denied to European food producers. Maize products
can be replaced with other feeds, albeit at a much increased cost, but soya
products cannot be replaced. EU politicians and decision makers must face up
to the reality of this.

Food supplies are tightening around the world - the developing
countries such as China and India are increasing their consumption and the
energy industry is competing with food processors for the worlds grain
supplies. Global grain supplies are lower than they have been for a
generation and a number of food exporting countries are limiting exports to
ensure sufficient supply for their own population.
Europe has approved many GM crop materials and these are widely used
in food and feedstuffs and the European Food Safety Authority is currently
assessing 90 new crop varieties. The difficulties lie with the delays in
approving these new varieties and this is leading to disruption in
international trade. It is a question of European food security.


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