[from The Campaign at www.thecampaign.org - Will] EU Parliament OKs Food Label Proposals
By CONSTANT BRAND .c The Associated Press BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - The European Parliament approved tougher proposals Wednesday for compulsory labeling of genetically modified foods, the latest volley in what may be a long battle over biotech products. The EU assembly voted 297 to 219, with 33 abstentions, to halve the proposed threshold for trace amounts of genetically altered content in food to 0.5 percent. A product with more than that would have to carry a label that it contains or was made from genetically modified organisms. ``A number of food products which don't have to be labeled now will have to be labeled in the future,'' said Austrian Socialist Karin Scheele, who co-wrote the bill. ``It is absolutely essential that we start making waves here.'' Industry lobbyists and the EU's executive commission, which drafted the original proposals, said they would work to lift the amendments before the package gets final approval. The European Commission said the amendments would make the legislation difficult to implement, hamper international trade and impose high costs on producers ``without providing significant benefits in terms of risk management.'' Labeling food produced through genetic engineering is a touchy subject for the biotech industry, both in Europe and in the United States. The industry fears that labels would sour consumer demand because products would cost more due to the restrictions. Last month, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said Washington opposes the labeling of GMO food products. U.S. officials have said the labeling could cost U.S. companies $4 billion a year. About 70 percent of the world's genetically modified crops are grown in the United States. The United States, which has lobbied hard against mandatory labeling, expressed disappointment at Wednesday's changes. Simon Barber, director of the plant biotechnology unit at EuropaBio, the main biotech lobby group in Europe, said his industry was in favor of labeling, but not ``zero tolerance.'' Conservatives in the EU parliament voted against the package. Antonios Trakatellis of Greece, who co-wrote the bill, said he recognized the ``general fear of biotechnology among consumers,'' but argued that a 1 percent threshold for accidental contamination was reasonable. While the biotech industry has said it could live with labels such as ``GMO-Free,'' consumer and environmental groups say such a label would be misleading if the threshold for trace amounts - and thus no label - was set at 1 percent. Another proposal, approved 305 to 207 with 40 abstentions, called for more stringent application of ways to trace and monitor GMO crops used in the food chain. Products sold containing traces of genetically altered products will have to be sold with a label reading either ``this product contains GMO'' or ``this product is produced from GMOs.'' Animal feed made from genetically altered crops will also have to carry a GMO label. EU lawmakers rejected by only three votes plans to label all meat, milk and eggs produced from animals fed altered grains. Public concerns over genetically altered crops have kept the EU from lifting a de facto moratorium on the sale of any new engineered products since 1998. This ban has angered U.S. exporters and hampered the growth of European agricultural biotech firms. Environmental campaigners welcomed the tougher proposals. ``The public should have the right to avoid GMO foods if they don't want to eat them,'' said Geert Ritsema of Friends of the Earth. 07/03/02 13:27 EDT *************************************************************** Europe backs stricter GM rules BBC News Wednesday, 3 July, 2002, 11:41 GMT 12:41 UK Plans to enforce stricter labelling of genetically modified foods across the European Union have been agreed by members of the European Parliament. Under current EU rules, only food with more than 1% of GM material has to be labelled. The proposals, which still have to be agreed by EU environment ministers before becoming law, would include the labelling of GM derivatives in such products as sugar and oils. But the parliament failed to agree on extra measures demanded by some MEPs to label milk, meat and eggs from animals reared on genetically modified feeds. The European Commission believes stricter labelling could help dispel the notion that the biotechnology industry has something to hide. But those involved in the industry say the proposed rules would set them back by decades. For the last four years, there has been an effective moratorium across the EU on the commercial growing of genetically modified crops. Public anxiety about the technology has meant research has come to a virtual standstill. The new legislation may give consumers more information, but the BBC's Shireen Wheeler says it could also lead to a trade dispute with the United States, where the export of genetically-modified crops and products is worth billions of dollars. *************************************************************** US farm group says Europe's GMO plan unworkable CHICAGO, July 3 (Reuters) - European plans to label foods that are gene-altered and require data tracking their movement from farm to dinner plate threatened a new trans-Atlantic trade row on Wednesday as U.S. grain sector officials said they are unworkable and would lead to higher food costs. The European Parliament voted for the new rules earlier in the day, a move certain to anger American farmers struggling for years with poor prices and as well as stoke a trans-Atlantic trade dispute already simmering over U.S. import duties on steel. The draft regulations, which require the approval of EU governments, is the latest step toward Europe reopening the process of approving the sale and production of new varieties of GM grains frozen by an unofficial moratorium since 1998. The industry officials were more concerned with the so-called "traceability" measure than labeling as they contend it would require additional costs to implement in a sector where millions of tonnes of grains change hands each year. "It would be a great burden on the grain industry, the feed industry and farmers," Tom Slunecka, director of development at the National Corn Growers Association, told Reuters. He said the "traceability" measure would require segregating crops into biotech and conventional varieties at U.S. farms, adding that European consumers would have to bear the costs to keep the two types of grains apart. Mary Kay Thatcher, director of public policy for the American Farm Bureau, the largest U.S. farm group, said the pending EU regulation "could mean billions of dollars in trade" for American farmers. She noted that the EU buys $6.3 billion worth of U.S. agricultural commodities every year and "a lot of that is corn, soybeans and cotton" that are genetically modified. Thatcher said the EU parliament's decision to reject labelling some foods, such as meat and eggs from animals fed with GM feed, demonstrates the regulation is "probably more of a trade barrier than an honest-to-goodness concern" over the safety of biotech foods. ARGUMENTS FAVOR GM CROPS IN AFRICA Europe's planned rules come amid strong opposition from its environmental and consumer groups to genetically modified foods, which have questioned the long-term, unintended health and environmental impact of such bio-engineered crops, For the developing world, particularly Africa where hunger is prevalent, the arguments favor genetically modified crops that are drought-resistant, able to grow in high-salt soils and contain missing nutrients, like Vitamin A for rice. The United States is the world's largest producer of crops that are genetically modified to make them resistant to pests or to withstand herbicides that kill nearby weeds. The U.S. Agriculture Department said in its annual acreage report last week that 75 percent of the soybeans planted by U.S. farmers this year were genetically modified, up from 68 percent in 2001. USDA said 34 percent of the corn planted had GMOs, up from 26 percent last year, while GMO cotton accounted for 71 percent of total plantings. Colorado farmer Tim Hume, who grows some 3,000 acres of corn, wheat and other crops, said he was disappointed with the European authorities for their position on GMO products. "We have been spending all this time and expense to try and fix a problem that doesn't exist. If these crops are not safe, we'll not be growing them in our farms," he said, adding that no scientific evidence suggested that GM foods are harmful. Hume, who is also president of the National Corn Growers Association, said that farmers whose crops were exported to Europe would examine the costs involved in adhering to the EU plans and likely redirect their products elsewhere. U.S. farmers weren't alone in criticizing the proposed EU regulation. Other food industry organizations, including the Grocery Manufacturers of America, slammed the parliament's vote. Karil Kochenderfer, a GMA technology expert, said that instead of educating consumers about biotech foods, the rule "comes off as a warning label" for products she said have been deemed safe. 07/03/02 15:43 ET
