Europe vs. Scientific Consensus
Europe vs. Scientific Consensus — the American Magazine
The modern techniques for genetic improvement — recombinant DNA, or “genetic modification” (GM) — began to be applied to bacteria and plants 40 years ago. For the first time, molecular biologists could very precisely move genetic material and its traits from one species to another. The resulting new plant varieties have revolutionized agriculture by boosting farmers’ profits and food security in much of the world. But not in Europe.
For more than 20 years, bucking a worldwide scientific consensus, the European Union (EU) has maintained literally nonsensical laws and regulations that focus not on the risk-related characteristics of new plant varieties but on the process — recombinant DNA technology — used to create them. The result is a dysfunctional regulatory system in which there is an inverse relationship between the degree of regulatory scrutiny and the perceived risk of the products. Recombinant DNA-modified plants are regulated into virtual oblivion while new plant varieties crafted with less precise, less predictable techniques are generally unregulated, whatever risk they might pose.
The EU regulatory system has authorized only two recombinant DNA-modified crops for cultivation in the European Union. Some member states have been so antagonistic that one variety (potato) has been virtually abandoned and the other (corn) has been banned from many EU nations on the basis of completely bogus concerns about safety. This situation is not expected to change, at least in the short term, despite a September 6 ruling by the European Court of Justice that applications to cultivate recombinant DNA-modified crops are not subject to national authorization procedures by individual EU countries when the bloc has approved their use and marketing.
As Sir Richard Roberts, a British Nobel Prize laureate, concluded, “European opposition to genetically modified organisms is political rather than scientific in nature.”
As a result of its unscientific regulatory approach, Europe collectively ranks behind countries like Uruguay, Pakistan, and the Philippines in the cultivation of recombinant DNA-modified crops.