NO ONE wants to force genetically modified food down the throats of Europeans.
But their governments shouldn’t be able to use sham regulations and deliberate inaction to block GM crops and foods from entering the European Union to be sold to those who do want to buy them.
Fortunately a World Trade Organization panel studying the EU’s GM food rules agrees, marking a victory for science over politics and a vote for consumer choice.
The panel’s preliminary ruling last week said the EU illegally restricted imports of GM crops and food, backing complaints launched by Canada, the United States and Argentina.
Read Also
Trump’s trade policies take their toll on Canadian producers
U.S. trade policy as dictated by president Donald Trump is hurting Canadian farmers in a multitude of ways.
The three asked the WTO in 2003 to start the investigation, complaining that since 1998 the EU and six of its member countries had employed what amounted to a moratorium on approving new GM crop varieties. They argued that the Europeans violated global agreements on food standards that say countries have the right to examine risks to health, safety and the environment, but decisions must be based on scientific principles and made without undue delay.
But the EU has been unable to provide scientific proof that the products presented for approval are dangerous. Also the European approval process is excessively long but even when it does approve a product, politicians, playing to the unwarranted fears of their constituents, still block its introduction.
Products have languished in the EU system for 10 years without a ruling. That illustrates the complaints are not frivolous. The system is not functional and is an abdication of responsibility to its own citizens.
Critics of the WTO decision say it is trying to force consumers to eat GM foods. That is not true. The ruling simply demands that the EU and its member countries live up to their commitment not to block foods if they are scientifically assessed and found to be safe for people, animals and the environment.
Allowing foods on the market does not force consumers to buy and eat them. It gives them a choice.
If there are as many Europeans interested in non-GM foods as anti-biotech crusaders allege, then there will be a huge incentive for companies to source non-GM foods and voluntarily label them as such, in a manner similar to the organic industry.
If Europeans want this, they can, by voting with their dollars, make non-GM food the norm in the marketplace.
However, genetic modification might not prove to be such a defining consumer issue when other considerations are also part of the buying decision, such as price, convenience and, as new GM traits are developed, desirable health attributes.
Europeans might find that a scientifically legitimate system that acts with dispatch best serves their needs.
Bruce Dyck, Terry Fries, Barb Glen, D’Arce McMillan and Ken Zacharias collaborate in the writing of Western Producer editorials.
