Swiss vote on curbing GM crops

Swiss voters cast ballots today on whether to tighten curbs on genetically modified farm products, a divisive topic in a country that already prohibits most of such technology from being used in agriculture.

While Switzerland does not allow genetically modified animals except for use in medicine and research, a new law that went into effect in January 2004 permits cultivation of modified crops once they have passed a “multiyear testing procedure.”

Environmentalists and consumer groups oppose the government’s law, saying it does not go far enough. They claim it threatens Swiss farmers at the expense of multinational agricultural business and forces products onto the market that people are not interested in buying.

Polls ahead of the referendum suggested a close vote. Projections based on exit polls by the polling institute gfs.bern for state-owned television network SRG indicated 55% of voters had voted in favour of a five-year moratorium on genetically modified farm products.

But because the proposed moratorium is a citizen’s initiative, it also needs to gain a majority in over half the country’s 26 cantons to be approved. It remained unclear how the vote broke down by canton.

Switzerland’s cherished system of direct democracy means that the people’s consent is required on any major issue.

Concerns about the safety of biotech foods for consumers and the environment have led many Europeans to resist the introduction of such products.

The European Union, of which Switzerland is not a member, ended a six-year moratorium on accepting applications for new genetically modified foods in May 2004. But Germany and France, neighbours of Switzerland and two of Europe’s largest economies, both recently voted to uphold national bans on products they deem unsafe.

Swiss business groups argue the moratorium should be rejected because it threatens the country’s leading position as a centre for gene technology research, and because it would work against the groups the referendum’s supporters claim to be protecting.

The Zurich-based Swiss Institute for Business Cycle Research claims approving a ban would hurt farmers by preventing them from using crops which are more pest and disease resistant.

Moreover, the new law would still allow consumers to choose at the supermarket between products that exclude genetically modified organisms and potentially cheaper alternatives that include them, the group says.

Swiss voters have already once rejected an attempt to ban genetically modified organisms entirely, when two out of three voted against an initiative in 1998.