France - GM crops

Parliament debates genetically modified organisms law

by Marco Chown Oved

Article published on the 2008-04-07 Latest update 2008-04-07 17:56 TU

PM Francois Fillon opens the Environmental Roundtable, 24 October, 2007.
(Photo : AFP)

A law determining how genetically modified foods will be treated is exposing rifts in French society. Proponents argue that GM crops will encourage scientific research and spur economic activity, while opponents allege that the health risks remain unknown and that the plants contaminate adjacent fields.

At the Environmental Roundtable in October 2007, French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced a country-wide moratorium on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) as a temporary measure until a permanent law could be written in the new year.

 

The French National Assembly is now debating this law. European directives require member-countries to regulate foods with genetically modified content. Meanwhile, French Agriculture Minister Michel Barnier has warned that a heavy-handed law would stifle scientific research and put French researchers at the mercy of international competition. French environmentalists accuse the Senate of already watering down the law and bending to industry pressure, opening the door to a dangerous and unproven product. And farmers are caught in the middle.

 

While genetically modified foods are grown widely in North America, Europe is far more wary of the crops. France is the EU's number one producer of grainstuffs  Until Sarkozy put the freeze on GM crops, only a single one was approved for use in France: a genetically modified strain of corn called MON 810, produced by the US agricultural giant Monsanto.

 

In 2007, 22,000 hectares of genetically modified corn were harvested in France. Regardless of how the debate around this new law is resolved, it will be too late to plant GM crops this year, effectively making 2008 GM-free in France.

 

What’s at stake in the parliamentary negotiations is the definition of a genetically modified food. At one end of the spectrum, the EU has asked member countries to require labeling of all foods containing more than 0.9% genetically modified ingredients, while at the other, Greenpeace considers anything with more than 0.1% genetically modified. Germany and Austria have passed similar laws, each using the stricter number as the threshold.