February 27, 2006

EU says farmers must limit sowing of GM seeds

European Union farmers must sow less than 0.5 percent of their fields with GM seeds to meet EU rules, a new European Commission report concluded Friday (Feb 24).

EU rules require crops to include no more than 0.9 percent of GM grain to avoid labelling the crops and resulting food products as containing GM material. The 0.9 percent ceiling is also designed to stop so-called GMO pollution reaching neighbouring fields.

The Commission report concludes that if farmers sow their fields with seed that includes no more than 0.5 percent GM material, their harvest will remain within the legal limit.

The Commission's Joint Research Centre concluded that little action is needed from farmers to keep the biotech content of their seeds to 0.5 percent.

The Centre has been studying how to reduce the "unintended and unavoidable" presence of GM material in non-GM harvests.

The report will shape the ongoing debate on how GMO and non-GMO farmers can coexist--a highly divisive issue in the EU, where consumers are notoriously suspicious of GM products.

EU officials and experts will meet in Vienna in early April to discuss whether farming practices have to be changed to minimise the involuntary spread of GMO across European fields.