GMOFORUM.AGROBIOLOGY.EU :  Phorum 5 The fastest message board... ever.
GMO RAUPP.INFO forum provided by WWW.AGROBIOLOGY.EU 
Goto Thread: PreviousNext
Goto: Forum ListMessage ListNew TopicSearchLog In
Has GMs time finally come
Posted by: Prof. Dr. M. Raupp (IP Logged)
Date: November 06, 2007 02:10PM

Extreme weather caused massive crop damage this year. Some European
farmers think GM could be the answer. But is the UK consumer ready to
embrace Frankenfoods, asks Nic Paton Genetically modified foods have sparked
much controversy in the UK over the past decade.
Trial crops of GM potatoes have been destroyed by activists as
recently as this year and the major supermarkets have long shunned the
so-called Frankenfoods fearing consumer backlash. Yet, in the wake of the
crop damage caused by this years extreme weather, GM crops are being touted
as a possible salvation. Less susceptible to bad weather and disease than
their normal counterparts, they are already being planted in their thousands
across Europe.

But what about here? Will UK farmers follow suit? And, more
importantly, is the great British public ready for GM? Will what was once
antipathy and is now arguably apathy turn into acceptance?

The US remains the biggest market for GM. But in Europe, the amount of
farmland devoted to GM crops will reach 100,000 hectares for the first time
this year. Spain will account for most of this, but they are also being
grown in Germany and France and the market is expected to grow
exponentially.

Two years ago France planted 500 hectares of GM crops," says Little.
"Last year it was 5,000. This year it will be 20,000. They are also being
planted in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Portugal, although not
in massive amounts." The UK government is in favour of further exploring the
potential for GM and says there could be some commercial cultivation of GM
crops as early as 2009. "The sensible approach is to consider GM crops on a
case- by-case basis, provided the evidence shows they are safe for human
health and the environment," Defra secretary of state Hilary Benn has told
The Grocer. "Ultimately it will be for farmers and consumers to decide
whether they want GM products."

Late last year, chemicals manufacturer BASF was given permission by
the government to plant blightresistant GM potatoes at two trial sites in
England. This has not been without incident and only one trial, in
Cambridge, has so far been successfu.Chris Wilson, corporate communications
manager at BASF, acknowledges the problems that it has had with protestors
but says that their actions do not reflect the general publics feelings
towards GM.

Consumers are becoming more open-minded, he believes. Were not saying
there is overwhelming support for GM but we think there is a fairly large
share of people out there willing to try it," he says. Consumer attitudes
towards GM could be shifting, suggests data from the Food Standards Agency.
Its study in February found that just 4% of shoppers looked for information
about GM on labels and only 3% spontaneously said they were concerned about
GM ingredients in foods.

New figures from TNS show that only 3% of consumers are particularly
concerned about GM, down from 11°h in 1999. Of far more concern are issues
such as global warming and bird flu, cited by 38% and 11°h of respondents
respectively.

Others are less convinced. With the national press always ready to
stoke peoples fears about Frankenfoods, demand remains pretty low, says an
Asda spokesman. The feeling is that consumers have not really moved on from
where they were two or three years ago, he says. "There are still concerns.
Until we have people demanding it, saying they want it, it is just not going
to be an issue for us.

Its much the same line from the British Retail Consortium. "All the
indications we have are that consumers are not yet prepared to purchase
products with GM components within them. Unless a majority of consumers are
content to consume GM ingredients, then it is not going to happen," says a
spokesman.

That said, many may be consuming GM foods without realising it. In the
UK a handful of GM foods have been approved for use - soya, tomato purée and
some forms of maize - and, despite the UK retailers stance against GM,
products that contain these ingredients can and are being bought in UK
supermarkets.

Most supermarkets already sell some foods with GM ingredients in them,
says Dr Julian Little, chairman of the Agricultural Biotechnology Council.
"What the supermarkets talk about is just their own label products, so they
are muddying the waters. The reality is GM products are around and people
are buying them and do not appear to be keeling over as a result."

Products that contain GM derivatives sold in the UK include Schwartz
Bacon Flavour Bits Soya Pieces, which includes ingredients manufactured from
GM soya and corn and which is sold in Sainsburys, and a vegetarian sushi
sold in Waitrose, which includes man made from GM soya. Some vegetable oils
that use GM soya are also available on the market, says Little.

What is often forgotten, says Wilson, is that the biotech industry
does not need a sudden about-face by consumers to get a return on its
investment. It works to long timescales - the blight-resistant potato is
unlikely to be on the market for another decade for instance - so even if
the arguments are only won gradually it will be good enough.

Those who are pro-GM believe that public opinion may be close to
tipping point in favour of GM. However, such claims are dismissed as mere
sabre-rattling by the anti-GM lobby. The idea that anything has changed is
rubbish. You get a flourish of hype from the GM industry pretty regularly,"
says Lord Peter Melchett, policy director of the Soil Association.

Clare Oxborrow, food campaigner with Friends of the Earth, adds that
take-up even in Europe remains low. "Within Europe, Spain is really the only
country that is doing GM on a significant scale - in its case GM maize," she
says.Both are adamant that consumers are as anti-GM as ever. But with so
little choice of GM foods at present, it's difficult to know what consumers
really think, says Helen Farrier, chief science and regulatory affairs
adviser at the NFU. 'At the moment there is no way of guessing whether a
consumer would choose a GM version of a product because it is not there on
the shelves," she says.

That may not be the case for much longer. With more US products,
including well-known brands, already using GM ingredients, and European
farmers also making the switch, it will become harder and harder for
consumers to avoid GM products.

Whether this will eventually lead to acceptance by the British public
it is too early to say and biotech companies still have a way to go to
convince people to fully trust GM. But the tipping point in favour of GM
could be just around the corner.n The GM timeline


a.. 1983 The first genetically modified plant, a tobacco plant
resistant to antibiotics, is developed in the US
a.. 1992 The phrase 'Frankenfood' is coined by Paul Lewis, an
English professor at Boston College in the US
a.. 1994 The first GM food, the Flavr Savr tomato, is approved in
the US
a.. 1996 GM tomato paste is approved in the UK but later removed
from sale
a.. 1998 The first GM labelling rules are introduced in the UK to
govern the use of GM ingredients in food
a.. 1999 The first UK farm-scale trials of GM crops begin. However,
the 25 acres of oilseed rape are subsequently destroyed by the farmer
following pressure from farm trustees
a.. 2000 Honey on sale in supermarkets is found to be contaminated
with GM pollen from British crop trials, forcing beekeepers to move their
hives. A survey finds nine out of 10 people reject cultivation of GM crops
a.. 2004 Activists tear up crop in Loire, France. Environment
secretary Margaret Beckett approves commercial planting of GM maize for
animal feed
a.. 2006 BASF is given permission by the UK government to plant
blight- resistant GM potatoes at two trial sites at Derbyshire and
Cambridge. Following protests the Derbyshire trial is dropped. Defra says
that no GM potato can enter the food chain

a.. Oct 2007 Italy, Poland and Hungary block proposals by Monsanto
to test three new GM corn varieties.
The EC must now ask government ministers across its 27 member states
to give their verdict on whether to permit the trials the solution to potato
blight ruining crops?

In December 2006 Defra gave approval for German chemical company BASF
to conduct five-year trials of a GM potato at two secret locations in
England, one in Cambridgeshire, in conjunction with the National Institute
of Agricultural Botany, and the other in Derbyshire.

The trials, which are the first GM trials in the UK since 2003, have
been met with strong resistance from environmentalists and have been
hampered by protests from the outset.Trials at the Derbyshire site were
cancelled in January when the farmer withdrew over fears of reprisals.

BASF was then given permission by Defra to conduct another trial of
the potato in East Yorkshire instead, but backed down earlier this year,
although it says it may use the site in the future. BASF faced similar
problems in February last year when its plans to grow GM potatoes in County
Meath, Ireland provoked protests and warnings of sabotage. It eventually
postponed the trial.

The company has managed to undertake tests of the crop in Cambridge,
but not without issue. The crop was damaged in July after protestors stormed
the field. Trials for this year have ended, but BASF says it will continue
with them during next years potato season Despite such public resistance to
its research, BASF says that its GM potatoes would be a boon to growers,
enabling them to grow disease-free crops and avoid waste. It says potato
blight - which develops in warm and humid conditions - annually destroys 20%
of the worlds potato harvest and its strain of GM potatoes could overcome
this problem.

According to BASF, some wild potato plants contain a special gene that
gives them an effective defence system against blight whereas modern
cultivated potatoes do not have this gene and therefore cannot defend
themselves against the fungus because they are no longer able to detect it.
Attempts to transfer this particular ability of wild potatoes back to modern
cultivated potatoes using classical breeding techniques have so far been
unsuccessful but BASF says biotechnology has solved the problem.

Researchers have isolated the first resistance gene of the wild potato
by means of genetic engineering and transferred it to the modern potato. The
company predicts its potatoes could be commercially available within the
next decade and that with global demand for agricultural products increasing
sharply, there will be more GM crops grown across the world that offer new
benefits to farmers and consumers.
[www.thegrocer.co.uk]



Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.
This forum powered by Phorum.