Thursday, February 09, 2012
BASF, the German chemical company, announced recently that the headquarters of BASF Plant Science, its biotech unit, would be moved from Germany to North Carolina in the US.
"There is still a lack of acceptance for this technology in many parts of Europe, [by] the majority of consumers, farmers and politicians." That’s according to Stefan Marcinowski, who is in change of the BASF plant biotechnology unit.
"Therefore, it does not make business sense to continue investing in products exclusively for cultivation in this market" he continued. Development and commercialisation of all products targeted solely at cultivation in the European market will be halted by the company.
While some operations will remain in Belgium and Berlin, most of their work will now be conducted from Raleigh.
BASF received European Union permission in 2010 for commercial cultivation of its GMO potato Amflora, which is used for industrial starch production. However, only 17 hectares were planned for planting in 2011 — two hectares in Germany and 15 hectares in Sweden.
Unlike in the Americas, the process of GMO approval is slower and more contested in the EU. (which led the US embassy in Paris to advise Washington to start a trade war against any EU country opposed to GM crops, according to a Wikileaks report).
About 30 million tonnes of animal feed from GM crops are imported into the EU each year.
Anti-GMO protests have been a regular occurrence across the EU since the late 1990s (including digging up a Monsanto GM sugar beet test crop in Wexford). These sorts of actions have repeatedly happened across Germany.
As BASF has acknowledged, the European consumer has never bought into GM. According to the latest official figures, 70% of European citizens find GM crops ‘unnatural’, and 61% oppose the development of these crops.
With regulatory stalemate at EU level, member states are now allowed regulate GM crops individually. Several countries, including Austria, France, Greece, Hungary, Germany and Luxembourg, are imposing bans on cultivating GM crops.
Some farming and science groups have expressed disappointment at the move, claiming that the EU will be left behind in technical developments in agri-food.
"The announcement by BASF to transfer its (German) domestic plant biotechnology research and development activities to the United States is disastrous for Europe as a location for agricultural industries," said Manfred Nuessel, president of a farmer co-op in Germany.
"Because of this development, I believe it is essential that a political and social climate is created in which biotech companies are not forced to transfer their activities abroad," he said.
Others, including environmental NGOs, have welcomed the move.
"Greenpeace is not against ‘biotechnology’, we are against bad biotechnology like GE [genetic engineering] crops. There are several other plant biotechnologies available. Marker assisted selection (MAS) for instance, which is also known as smart breeding, which is more effective, cheaper and less risky than GE," says Marco Contiero of Greenpeace.
"Greenpeace supports smart breeding not only because it doesn’t pose the health and environmental risks of GE crops, but also because it is cheaper, which makes it easier for public institutions to use it."
So what does all of this mean for farming and the consumer in the EU? Certainly, the EU seems to be moving ever more in a consumer-driven and environmentally-orientated direction. The proposed allocation of 30% of CAP payments for greening measures, and the various environmental and animal welfare directives coming downstream, attest to this.
Whether this will present an opportunity for organic remains to be seen.
© Examiner Publications (Cork) Limited, City Quarter, Lapps Quay, Cork. Registered in Ireland: 73385.
