New EU Moratorium on GM Cultivation
Friends of the Earth Europe -- This article says that EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas has ordered a temporary
halt on all new applications for genetically modified (GM) crop cultivation until the issues of coexistence and
adventitious presence are addressed at the European level.
According to the article, the temporary hold has the potential to last a long time, as it looks unlikely that either
issue will be resolved this year. EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel has yet to decide on possible new
measures regarding the coexistence of GM and non-GM crops.
Meanwhile, the article says that the issue of GM "contamination" of non-GM grain is a long-running dilemma for the
European Commission with "no solution in sight."
The article says that there has been no (entirely) new approval of a GM crop for cultivation in the EU since the
beginning of the bloc's de fact moratorium on genetically modified organism (GMO)approvals in 1998.
The de facto moratorium ended last year with the approval of a GM crop for use in food and feed, but not for
cultivation.
The article can be viewed online at the link below.