|
INT’L – NESTLE SUPPORTS THE USE OF GM
23 June 2008 Source: The Financial Times
Source: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/25020ee0-4098-11dd-bd48-0000779fd2ac.html
Nestlé asks EU to soften line on GM
By Raphael Minder in Kuala Lumpur, Andrew Bounds in Brussels and Jenny Wiggins in London
Published: June 22 2008 23:30 | Last updated: June 23 2008 09:00 – Financial Times
The world’s biggest food company has called on European policymakers to reconsider their opposition to genetically modified crops, as soaring commodity prices put basic foodstuffs such as wheat and rice out of reach of the world’s poorest.
“You cannot today feed the world without genetically modified organisms,” Peter Brabeck, chairman of Nestlé, told the Financial Times. “We have the means to make agriculture sustainable in the long term. What we don’t see for the time being is the political will.”
Mr Brabeck said Europe’s opposition to such biotechnology had encouraged African policymakers to reject GM crops. South Africa is the only country on the African continent to commercialise them, growing GM maize, cotton and soyabeans.
“The European Union used political pressure in Africa to prevent some of those countries using genetically modified organisms,” said Mr Brabeck.
“I don’t think that was necessarily helpful for the agriculture of those countries nor for their supplies.”
Peter Mandelson, the EU trade commissioner, rejected any allegation of bullying. “Africa is free to grow whatever crops it wishes, but as the vast majority of its agricultural exports are destined for the EU, it is clearly in its interests to try to meet the needs of that market.”
Many African and Asian countries have shied away from planting GM crops for fear of being shut out of the EU – the biggest importer of foodstuffs from developing countries.
The European Commission says biotechnology could help to solve the food crisis and officials say they are frustrated that national governments often block their recommendations for GM approval. “Their resistance stems from how Europe feels about GMOs,” said a spokesman.
Only 21 per cent of Europeans will eat genetically engineered food, according to a Commission survey.
Few GM strains of crops have been licensed by the EU. This has left European farmers angry about the increasingly high prices they are being forced to pay for non-GM animal feed.
In Britain, the National Farmers’ Union has asked leading supermarket chains to drop GM-free requirements from all save organic food. Farmers are finding it difficult to source non-GM soyabeans to feed poultry flocks because Brazil, the leading exporter of non-GM soya, has been planting more GM crops.
Mr Brabeck said European concerns over the the health risks of GM were unfounded, given that such foods had been eaten safely by Americans for decades.
“It is one of the safest technologies that we have ever seen – much safer than bio or organic or whatever else is fashionable in Europe,” he said.
Organic food crops, which typically yield less than GM food crops, were “a nice treat for those who can afford it”, he said.
Opponents of GM foods have argued that there is little proof that the crops have higher yields. But proponents maintain that there is scientific evidence.
US Department of Agriculture research found that one variety of GM corn yielded 9 per cent more than conventional corn. The International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications, which encourages developing countries to adopt GM technology, says GM cotton has increased yields by 50 per cent in India.
|
