New political measures are needed to ensure that global food demand is
met in an environmentally sustainable way, said Franz Fischler, who argued
in favour of GMO technology to help produce new food crops that meet
changing climatic conditions and can be used in biofuel production.
"We need a modern policy framework which enables our farmers to meet
world food demand in an environmentally sustainable way," said Fischler,
speaking at a forum on the future of EU agriculture on 27 March 2008.

The former agriculture commissioner said that a market-driven approach
to agriculture cannot deal with issues such as environmental security.
"Participants in this conference acknowledge market failure in respect of
food security and environmental security. Neither receives sufficient
government attention or support," said Fischler, currently chairman of the
RISE foundation, which supports and monitors rural private investment.

As for the current EU debate on GMOs, the former commissioner said
that the problem regards real benefits for consumers. "As long as we are not
able to demonstrate to consumers that there is a benefit, their consumption
behaviours won't change."

In addition to this, there are "two fundamental open problems" linked
to the debate. The first, he said, is that the agricultural sector must in
future also produce new plants which are not used for food and feed but for
other purposes, such as biofuels. "For these non-food purposes, GMO
techniques could play an increasing role."

The second question is climate change and the need to adapt plant
varieties to new climatic conditions in a way that allows plants to consume,
for example, less water. "The discussion here is to know whether there is
enough time to do this through traditional breeding methods or whether the
development is so fast that it will be necessary to use GMO techniques which
can produce new varieties far more quickly," said Fischler.

Fischler's views were echoed by John Atkin of Syngenta, a world leader
in agribusiness based in Switzerland, which sponsored the conference. "By
2030, 50% more food will be needed. This is two billion more people and
mouths to feed via better diets," said Atkin. "Technology can contribute
hugely to responding to the challenges of food security. For this, it is
important to demonstrate what technology can do and illustrate the
consequences of better seeds, better chemicals and better use of
fertilisers," he added.

Regardless of several positive safety assessments from the European
Food Safety Authority (EFSA), the EU 27 remain divided over the
acceptability of GMOs and several member states are resisting pressure from
the European Commission to lift their individual GMO bans on certain
varieties of GM maize exported by the American giant GM producer Monsanto,
for example.

Early this year, French President Nicolas Sarkozy joined Austria,
Germany and Poland in invoking an EU safeguard clause enabling France to
suspend the marketing and growth on its territory of a GM crop that has
EU-wide authorisation.

The Commission has never substantiated the applications invoking the
safeguard clause while EU environment ministers have repeatedly failed to
reach a qualified majority for or against the Commission's proposals to lift
the national bans.


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