In the wake of an EU ruling that countries cannot introduce their own additional authorisation procedures to block cultivation of genetically modified crops, the French Prime Minister has confirmed his country’s intention to uphold its ban on GM maize. Last week, the European Court of Justice announced that countries may not introduce their own authorisation procedures to supplement the European Food Safety Authority’s findings following an attempt by Italy to block GM crops.

Whilst GM crops are extremely controversial, especially in Europe where their use is opposed by the majority of the European public, the ECJ’s declaration that coexistence measures, which attempt to mitigate the potential effects of GM crops on nearby conventional and organic farmers, are not mandatory to grow GM plants was met with condemnation. The legislators were accused of having bowed to the powerful agribusiness lobby over last week’s ruling.

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Nevertheless, French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault announced on Saturday (15th September) that the country would maintain its ban on the cultivation of GM maize. In the EU only one GM variety is licensed for commercial growing, Monsanto’s MON810 maize. France’s ban on the maize, the country’s second such measure, has been hotly contested by Monsanto, which has sought to overturn the ban in French and European courts.

A plan devised by Denmark, intended to improve the ability of EU member states to ban or accept GM crops on a state-by-state basis, was rejected earlier this year following months of stalemate in the European Parliament. The proposed measures were rejected by both pro and anti-GM states.  

French ban on GM crops

The current French ban on MON810, sold in Europe as Yieldgard, was introduced in March this year, just months after rulings from courts in France and Europe led to the annulment of the country’s previous moratorium in November 2011. The French government maintains GM crops pose a risk to the natural environment.

Speaking in Paris on Saturday, Ayrault declared, "The government is keeping its moratorium on the cultivation of GMO seeds currently authorized in the European Union.”

France is the EU’s largest agricultural producer; the country’s stance on GM crops is particularly stalwart, which has led to it being targeted by agribusinesses and politicians acting in their interests in the past. Although the legal challenge over MON810 has centred around France’s moratorium, the maize is also banned in Austria, Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg, Greece and Bulgaria.

In 2010, whistle blowing website Wikileaks revealed that former US ambassador Craig Stapleton had advised Washington to penalise the EU following France’s first ban of US-based agribusiness Monsanto’s Gm maize. Stapleton said, "Country team Paris recommends that we calibrate a target retaliation list that causes some pain across the EU since this is a collective responsibility, but that also focuses in part on the worst culprits.” He suggested, “Moving to retaliation will make clear that the current path has real costs to EU interests and could help strengthen European pro-biotech voices.”

On Saturday, Ayrault also revealed further details of the country’s plan to reduce the use of chemicals in agriculture. These included a ban on crop dusting, except for cases where no viable alternative exists.

UK government committee advises stricter regulation of GM

Meanwhile in the UK, a report by the government’s environmental watchdog, the Environmetal Audit Committee, called on Westminster to introduce tighter regulation and scrutiny on GM crops.

Committee members advised ministers to bring in “Additional conditionalities applied to GM crops beyond those which form part of the EU environmental risk assessment and authorisation procedure,” although this would prove more difficult in the light of the ECJ’s ruling. They also recommended that “A new independent body should be established to research, evaluate and report on the potential impacts on the environment of GM crops, and their impacts on farming and on the global food system.”

The government’s response to EAC’s recommendations focused almost entirely on the marketability of GM, rather than the potential risks highlighted, which the EAC recommended investigating. A Defra spokesperson said, “Defra will implement pragmatic and proportionate measures to segregate [GM crops] from conventional and organic crops, so that choice can be exercised and economic interests appropriately protected,” the spokesperson added that government plans to “Leave the normal operation of the market to determine whether or not an approved GM product gains acceptance.”

Pete Riley, spokesperson for UK group GM Freeze said in response to the EAC’s report on sustainable food, in which the committee made its recommendations on GM, “The Committee identified shortcoming in the present systems for overseeing the approval of GM crops, but the Government has rejected their sensible proposals to address them. The Government says it, ‘Takes a science-led approach to GM,’ but then ignores calls from the Parliament to examine the science.

“GM crops have promised much but performed abysmally to date. Yet GM continues to soak up public research money that should be spent on more promising technologies. Instead of throwing good money after bad, we should be learning from countries growing GM crops, where a predictable evolution of resistant weeds and insects is overwhelming GM technology and escalating the pesticides arms race.”