It appears the pendulum is swinging in favour of genetically modified foods.
Governments in China, Brazil and even the European Union are adopting measures that are easing GM food production.
It is not all clear sailing. Concerns in North America about market acceptance of GM wheat caused companies promoting it to drop its development this year.
But in a couple of the world’s most populous countries, governments are accepting GM technology.
China’s government has a wide ranging genetic modification program on an array of crops, including wheat, rapeseed and soybeans. It already commercially produces GM cotton and tomatoes.
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Last week it said it is proceeding with field and food safety trials of GM rice, expected to usher in the commercial production of that food staple in a year or two.
Brazilian farmers received temporary approval to grow GM soybeans last year while their government developed a GM food policy.
Progress was made on a regulatory system, called the Biosafety Bill, and the Brazilian Senate approved it recently after heated debate. But final approval by both houses of Congress is not expected until next year so last month the temporary policy was extended for another year.
Even in the European Union the ban on GM crops has ended and GM varieties are coming forward for regulatory approval. Some are getting the go ahead, although there is still a split among EU members.
Reuters News Agency reports that Finland, the Netherlands, Britain, Ireland and Sweden usually support opening EU borders to new GM crops. This group has the momentum since France and Italy also appear to have sided with it. Austria, Denmark, Greece and Luxembourg are consistently opposed, while Germany has always abstained due to internal differences.
Germany last month passed legislation allowing its farmers to produce GM crops, but under strict provisions making growers legally responsible for the contamination of non-GM crops and obliging them to enter all land used for GM cultivation in a public register.
Step by step, GM crop production is being accepted by governments around the world, albeit under varying levels of regulation.
Consumer acceptance is still an issue in some places, but that is a matter for the market, not governments, to decide. The days of Canada and the United States being an island of GM crop production are coming to an end.
