March 19, 2010

 

Bulgaria tightens restrictions on GM crops 

 

 

Bulgaria's parliament Thursday (March 18) tightened restrictions on genetically modified (GM) crops in the face of pressure from environmentalists seeking a total ban.

 

Environment campaigners criticised an initial version of the bill that proposed to drop restrictions on GM crops being grown close to protected nature areas and release GM wheat as well as other products on to the market.

 

In the face of such criticism, lawmakers passed a revised bill that keeps existing restrictions and calls for 30-kilometre buffer zones around the nature parks where GM crops are banned.

 

In practice, the new rules leave just a few patches of land unprotected and none of them is big enough for large-scale industrial farming, experts said.

 

Under the new rules, GM hybrids of the traditional Bulgarian crops would be banned from the market and scientists would be forbidden from conducting any GM experiments outside their labs.

 

The final bill was applauded by environmentalists as "restrictive enough" even if it failed to specifically impose a total ban on the cultivation and import of GM food.

 

The new legislation left the ministries of environment and agriculture to decide on a case-by-case basis whether to allow the cultivation of products already allowed by the European Commission.

 

Both ministries said they would never give any GM product the green light, but also warned that the country could not ensure that foods with GM ingredients did not enter the Bulgarian market from abroad.