TOUGH TIMES FOR BIOTECH COMPANIES IN EUROPE
There is a lot going on for big biotech companies in Europe at the moment.
Monsanto have just announced that they are scrapping their plans to sell GM maize in France.
The company was also found guilty of poisoning a farmer in France with its pesticide on the 14th Feb.
But the biggest news recently was probably from BASF.
(Pic: what BASF used to be known for)
The German chemical company, announced recently that the headquarters of BASF Plant Science, its biotech unit, would be moved from Germany to North Carolina in the US. This marks the end of GM crop development for European farmers. While Bayer is currently developing GM cotton and rice in Belgium, it is for non-EU markets.
“There is still a lack of acceptance for this technology in many parts of Europe – [by] the majority of consumers, farmers and politicians.” That's according to Stefan Marcinowski, board member with BASF, who is in change of plant biotechnology unit with the company.
“Therefore, it does not make business sense to continue investing in products exclusively for cultivation in this market” he continued. Development and commercialisation of all products targeted solely at cultivation in the European market will be halted, the company said.
While some operations will remain on in Belgium and Berlin, most of their operations will now be conducted from Raleigh in the US State.
BASF had received European Union permission in 2010 for commercial cultivation of its GMO potato Amflora, which is used for industrial starch production. However only 17 hectares were planned for planting in 2011 - two hectares of the Germany and 15 hectares in Sweden.
Unlike in the Americas, the process of GMO approval is slower and more contested in the EU.
Indeed a wikileaks cable from January pointed out that the US embassy in Paris advised Washington to start a military-style trade war against any European Union country opposed to GM crops.
About 30 million tonnes of GM animal feed are imported into the EU each year.
Anti GMO protests have been a regular occurrence across the EU since the late 1990s, when a Monsanto GM sugar beet test crop was dug up in Wexford. These sorts of actions have repeatedly happened across Germany, even into recent times.
As BASF themselves have acknowledged, the European consumer has never bought into GM. According to the latest official figures 70 percent of European citizens find GE crops 'unnatural' and 61 percent of them oppose the development of these crops.
With regulatory stalemate at EU level, individual countries are now allowed regualte GM crops individually. Several countries, including Austria, France, Greece, Hungary, Germany and Luxembourg, are imposing bans on cultivating GM crops.
Some farming and science groups have expressed disappointment at the move, claiming that the EU will be left behind in technical developments in agri-food.
"The announcement by BASF to transfer its (German) domestic plant biotechnology research and development activities to the United States is disastrous for Europe as a location for agricultural industries," Manfred Nuessel, president of a farmer co-op in Germany said in a statement.
"Because of this development, I believe it is essential that a political and social climate is created in which biotech companies are not forced to transfer their activities abroad," he continued.
Others, including environmental NGO's, have welcomed the move. “Greenpeace is not against 'biotechnology', we are against bad biotechnology like GE [Genetic Engineering] crops. There are several other plant biotechnologies available. Marker Assisted Selection (MAS) for instance, which is also known as Smart Breeding which is more effective, cheaper and less risky than GE” according to Marco Contiero of the organisation.
“Greenpeace supports Smart Breeding not only because it doesn’t pose the health and environmental risks of GE crops, but also because it is cheaper which makes it easier for public institutions to use it.”
So what does all of this mean for farming and the consumer in the EU? Certainly the EU does seem to be moving ever more in a consumer-driven and environmentally-orientated direction. The allocation of 30% of CAP payments for greening measures and the various environmental and animal welfare Directives coming downstream attest to this.
Whether this will present an opportunity for or a withering away of organic remains to be seen.