Aspects Connected with the Enforcement of the EU Provisions on Genetically Modified Organisms

Monitoring of Bt-Maize pollen exposure in the vicinity of the nature reserve Ruhlsdorfer Bruch in northeast Germany 2007 to 2008

“…Hence respective cases were treated separately leading to an unequal handling and discontinuity. Furthermore, this undermines the legal goals of sustainable nature conservation (Klöpffer 2001;Marabelli 2005;Steinhäuser 2001). Thus, due to missing general regulation, the cases do regularly end up in front of the court.…”

Genetically modified organisms: Do the benefits outweigh the risks?

“…It has been argued that thanks to scientific research, a better understanding of technologies and to recent provisions, most of the parties participating in the discussion on GMOs agree on the fact that foodstuffs and ingredients originating from the current GM crops do not seem to pose a hazard to public health (7). According to the judgment of the Nuffield Council of Bioethics, there is no empirical or theoretical evidence that GM crops pose greater hazards to health than plants resulting from conventional plant breeding (8).…”

“…For example, between 1996 and 2003, the land planted with GM crops increased approximately from 3 million to 70 million hectares globally (7). Argentina and the United States are the countries that have extensively adopted biotechnologies, mainly applied soy-bean and corn, and about 80% of land in these countries have been planted with GM crops (7).…”

“…Argentina and the United States are the countries that have extensively adopted biotechnologies, mainly applied soy-bean and corn, and about 80% of land in these countries have been planted with GM crops (7). A dramatic increase in GM-planted land has also been recorded in Brazil (7). It has been estimated that more than 30 000 food products will contain soybean or maize ingredients, and approximately 32 millions tons of feed will be derived from GMOs (6).…”

“…In Europe, the food production system overall is strongly influenced by the need for raw materials for animal nutrition. Out of approximately 30 million tons of soy-bean cakes used in 2001, only 2.5% were produced with soy-bean grown and processed within the EU, which means a wide use of imports from third countries that have already been using GM crops for some time (7).…”