Europe could run short of food, and, as a result, consumers will suffer from food price increases and be forced to buy imported food from sources where production is not as well-regulated as within Europe.

This was the warning issued by Robin Irvine, president of the Northern Ireland Grain Trade Association, when he met Michelle Gildernew, Minister for Agriculture this week.

Mr Irvine emphasised: "I am not just issuing a warning from our association, I am repeating the warning issued by Markos Kyprianou, the EU Commissioner for Food, and Marianne Fisher Boel, the EU Commissioner for Agriculture."

The irony of the situation is that the food that will have to be imported will be produced from the crop varieties which the unwieldy European system takes so long to approve, thus leaving Europe's food producers totally uncompetitive.

Robin Irvine added: "The EU system of approval for new varieties of crops is totally out of sync with the rest of the world. While food production in other countries enjoys the benefits of new science and technology the European system plods along several years out of date."

To clarify some misconceptions, Mr Irvine explained: "Some people see this as an argument about the pros and cons of GM materials. This argument is not about GM, it is about the survival of our food industry, GM materials are already in the European food chain.

"The Northern Ireland Grain Trade Association respects the right of consumers to choose whether they wish to go down the GM route or not. Our members manufacture animal feed without GM materials for those who wish to avoid them.

"The point is that for those consumers who choose GM, the main food-producing countries in the world are using biotechnology to increase the efficiency of food production - Europe is out of step with the rest of the world in that it takes two years longer than any other region to approve these and is in danger of making local food producers so uncompetitive that many will be forced out of business – consumers will be denied an affordable local product, produced to a very high standard and will be dependent on imported food produced under a much less regulated regime – using practices which would not be permitted in Europe.''

According to NIGTA, the loss of one million tonnes of US maize products which made up about one-third of cattle rations in Ireland is only the tip of the iceberg. If the EU approvals system is not updated then new varieties of soya will be denied to European food producers. Maize products can be replaced with other feeds, albeit at a much increased cost, but soya products cannot be replaced. EU politicians and decision makers must face up to the reality of this.

Food supplies are tightening around the world - the developing countries such as China and India are increasing their consumption and the energy industry is competing with food processors for the world’s grain supplies. Global grain supplies are lower than they have been for a generation and a number of food exporting countries are limiting exports to ensure sufficient supply for their own population.
Europe has approved many GM crop materials and these are widely used in food and feedstuffs and the European Food Safety Authority is currently assessing 90 new crop varieties. The difficulties lie with the delays in approving these new varieties and this is leading to disruption in international trade. It is a question of European food security.

©2007  Johnston Press Digital

Source: Farming Life
via checkbiotech, 071015