EU countries secure opt-out option over the growing of GM crops
Environment ministers decided to let individual member countries ban the planting of gene-altered crops so EU nations that favour such seeds can grow them, denting a free-trade tenet of the union.
The ministers swung behind a 2010 proposal to give national governments an opt-out when it comes to cultivating gene-altered crops. “This is a real step forward in unblocking the dysfunctional EU process for approving GM crops, which is currently letting down our farmers and stopping scientific development,” said UK secretary of state for the environment Owen Paterson.
