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[SANET-MG] EU plans to allow too much GM pollution



The article below deals with an EU approach to GM pollution of food crops.The more rational approach to allowed GM pollution is lowest detectable level (LDL). Off course, the issue related to the sale of patented GM pollution requiring the polluted to pay the polluter (as in Canada) has not been resolved. Furthermore, EU discussed 0.9% pollution of seeds for planting and that is a very dangerous proposal because the GM pollution may provide selective advantage for Bt (a dominant marker) and for herbicide tolerance (another dominant marker) thus producing crops that are highly enriched in GM. This creates , ultimately, a state of De facto approval without environmental and human health study and approval. The EU action seems to provide a slippery slope not a regulation.
Daily Telegraph UK
EU plans for GM organic food condemned
(Filed: 05/01/2006)

Food campaigners are angry at EU plans to allow organic food to contain genetically modified content. Soil Association wants 0.1pc limit on GM content The European Commission's proposals would permit products accidentally contaminated with up to 0.9 per cent GM organisms to be officially certified as organic.

The Commission said the regulation aimed to take a realistic approach to the risk of GM contamination and ensure organic farmers were not penalised.

But the Soil Association rejected the idea, saying organic food should have a maximum GM content of 0.1 per cent.

Peter Melchett, Soil Association policy director, said: "Our position is no GM in Soil Association-certified organic, which in practice means the lowest level of GM that can be reliably and consistently detected, which is 0.1 per cent."

Friends of the Earth (FoE) said they believed the EU plans to be legally wrong, adding that current regulations did not allow organic products to contain GM substances "in any quantity".

Helen Holder, a spokeswoman for FoE, said genetic contamination of organic food was "completely unacceptable" to consumers.

"The European Commission should be protecting organic farmers and consumers with laws that prevent organic farming from being contaminated by GM," she said.

The EU regulation is proposed to apply from Jan 1, 2009, and will impose labelling restrictions on organic produce

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