USA: Agricultural groups sceptical over draft EU regulations on GM foods

Two of the largest agricultural groups in the US, the National Corn Growers’ Association (NCGA) and the US Grains Council have branded as “unworkable” draft GM regulations being created by the European Union. The EU regulations deal ostensibly with threshold standards for the traceability and labelling of GM elements within food products and grains.

June 20, 2001

Two of the largest agricultural groups in the US, the National Corn Growers’ Association (NCGA) and the US Grains Council have branded as “unworkable” draft GM regulations being created by the European Union. The EU regulations deal ostensibly with threshold standards for the traceability and labelling of GM elements within food products and grains.

The US groups had visited the EU last week for working discussions on agricultural biotechnology issues, and they revealed that the meetings had shown up a clear cultural divide between the US and other countries on the subject of GM. They also apparently bought to light some of the misconceptions about the biotech industry.

As yet, it does not seem that specific thresholds for the allowable level of GM contamination before the product is officially labelled as GM have been agreed on, but Leon Corzine, a NCGA member, commented that 5% is “more reasonable” than the previously suggested level of 1%. It is also, said Corzine, “a lot more reasonable” than 0.1%, a level apparently forwarded early in the debate by EU officials.