Beginning April 15, grain importers and processors in the European Union will be watching their imports more closely.
That’s because anyone who imports a non-genetically modified shipment of grain could be sent to jail or fined 10,000 Euros if it is contaminated by one percent GM grain.
“A wise (grain) trader should be careful when saying a shipment is non-GM,” said Pamela Kirby-Johnson, the director general of the London-based Grains and Feed Trade Association.
The EU has approved a few GM crops, but most GM crops grown in North America are not approved.
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Approved GM crops can be imported to the EU, but they must be declared as GM.
If a shipment of grain is imported as non-GM, it cannot contain more than 0.9 percent of an approved GM crop. A non-GM crop can contain 0.5 percent of a GM crop if those GM traits are already being assessed by EU authorities.
A non-GM crop can have no contamination by any GM material that is not being assessed by the EU.
Six of the 11 GM traits found in U.S. corn varieties, as well as the GM traits in Canadian canola, have not been approved by the EU and are not being assessed. The new EU law means that American corn and soybeans and Canadian canola are effectively banned from the EU.
Kirby-Johnson said the EU’s strict bans on trace amounts of GM material will likely backfire.
The tolerances for trace amounts of GM materials are so low that no one will feel confident claiming that a shipment is non-GM, critics argue.
“The biggest problem is for those commodities that are fundamentally non-GM but pick up some GM material percentage,” said Kirby-Johnson.
