- BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Europe's
new food safety agency will soon start its first risk analysis of live
gene-spliced crops as the European Union debates lifting a five-year ban,
officials said on Friday.
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- With EU countries split down the middle on whether to
lift their ban on new genetically modified (GM) foods and crops, the views
of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) are seen as key to the debate
since it is independent and non-political.
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- So far, EFSA has looked at GM types where the requested
uses have not included growing crops from GM seeds. Cultivation of GM organisms
(GMOs) is highly controversial, with many issues to be resolved over crop
contamination and environmental liability.
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- "Three requests for a scientific option are expected
to be forwarded to the Authority in January 2004," EFSA said in its
2004 draft management plan. Two of these include cultivation as a specified
use, according to data from the European Commission.
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- The two products are Bt-11 maize, marketed by Switzerland's
Syngenta, and 1507 maize, designed by U.S. biotech giant Monsanto. Both
applications are for cultivation, use in feed and for industrial processing.
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- The Commission said it was still waiting for the final
version of the applications with expert scientific opinion from the countries
that submitted them -- France and Spain -- so could not say exactly when
it would make its requests to EFSA.
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- In December, EFSA gave a clean bill of health to a Monsanto
maize type. It is now assessing three other products: two maize types and
one oilseed rape, all from Monsanto.
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- Green groups say it is premature to assess live GMOs
while there are difficult decisions ahead on allowing imports of Bt-11
maize under a separate application, for eating out of a can.
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- After an inconclusive committee meeting last month, the
Bt-11 issue has passed to EU ministers who now have to decide -- over the
next three months -- what is a test case for the bloc's five-year unofficial
ban on new biotech foods and crops.
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- Diplomats say approving a live GMO will be the acid test
on whether the EU has really lifted its moratorium, regardless of whether
Bt-11 imports -- not for cultivation -- are allowed.
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