By Jeremy Smith

The European Union will next week approve imports of genetically modified
(GM) soybeans made by Bayer CropScience, hoping to ease a shortage of animal
feed, officials said on Wednesday.
The rubber-stamp approval, permitted under EU law when ministers from the
bloc's 27 countries fail to agree after a certain time, will be valid for a
standard 10 years and be granted by the European Commission, the EU's
executive arm, on September 8, they said.

Bayer's soybean, developed to resist glufosinate herbicides, is known by its
codename A2704-12 and will be imported into EU markets either as whole
soybeans, oil or meal, and then be processed by European companies for use
in food and animal feed.

Its EU authorization does not permit cultivation in Europe.

The draft approval, obtained by Reuters, refers to the "placing on the
market of foods, food ingredients and feed containing, consisting or
produced by A2704-12 soybean".

The soybean is of particular interest to Europe's livestock and feed
manufacturing industries since they depend heavily on imported soy
products - beans, meal - as a source of protein-rich and high-quality feed.

The approval, which follows on from an inconclusive debate by EU farm
ministers in July, may also allow the Commission to avoid proposing a
controversial ceiling for amounts of unauthorized GM material tolerated in
imports, officials say.

ZERO TOLERANCE

After a tortuous debate in May on how to push biotech policy forward and end
years of deadlock between EU countries, the Commission said it would look at
finding a "technical solution" to end the EU zero-tolerance policy on
unauthorized GM products.

While the EU has approved a string of GM products - mainly maize types - by
default rubber-stamps since 2004, it does not permit the presence of any
other GMO on EU territory, even in tiny amounts, until the EU approval for
that product is granted.

For major GM crop-growing countries such as the United States, Canada and
Argentina, that policy has led to cargoes of rice and grain arriving at EU
ports being impounded by local authorities if sampling shows the presence of
unauthorized GM material.

Allowing imports of Bayer's GM soybean, along with a few pending GM maize
applications, should help achieve the aim of raising supply of raw material
for animal feed, officials say.

It might also allow the Commission to avoid embarking on a legal proposal to
allow unauthorized GM material into Europe that would certainly be
controversial and divisive, they say.

EU countries rarely agree on GM issues and discussions on authorizing
imports of new GM products usually end in deadlock.

The EU's zero tolerance of unauthorized GM material has been a major
headache for feedmakers and livestock producers.

Soy, an ideal high-protein raw material for feed, mainly enters Europe from
Argentina, Brazil and the United States, the world's top three soybean
producers.

Since these countries mainly grow GM varieties, non-biotech soy is becoming
increasingly difficult to source
www.checkbiotech.org