New Scientist
27 February 1999
By Debora MacKenzie
FOR MOST PEOPLE, the main question about GM food is: do I have to eat it or
not? If we are to have that choice, GM crops will have to be segregated from
plough to plate and all products containing GM food labelled as such.
The US government claims that this would impose heavy costs on its food
suppliers. It threatens a trade war if the European Union responds to public
pressure by demanding segregation of GM crops within US exports. But a new
analysis suggests that the costs of segregation and labelling are
manageable, and could even enhance trade. "This could be the only key to
easing public acceptance of biotechnology," says Allan Buckwell, an
agricultural economist at Wye College near Ashford, Kent.
Buckwell presented his findings in Brussels earlier this month. He says that
similarly stringent segregation--although not on the basis of genetic
modification--is already widespread. "Different varieties of wheat, for
bread or pasta, are already strictly separated from farm gate to production
plant," he says. And in the US, soya growers already distinguish beans used
in different kinds of tofu for export to Japan.
The cost of such segregation is not prohibitive, say Buckwell and his
colleague Graham Brookes. For example, soya growers and processors in the US
separate and label beans with different protein and oil contents for an
extra cost of just 6 to 9 per cent compared with unsegregated beans. Soya
growers in Brazil distinguish GM from non-modified soya for a premium of 10
to 15 per cent. European dealers separate maize with a high oil content for
17 per cent extra cost, while US producers do it for 6 per cent. Canadian
farmers distinguish GM from normal oilseed rape, or canola, for an 8 per
cent premium. And costs will come down, says Buckwell, if segregation
becomes widespread.
The organisation that commissioned the Wye College study remains sceptical,
however. The Food Biotech Communications Initiative, which represents
companies such as Monsanto, Coca-Cola and NestlÈ, concludes that segregation
will increase food costs by "as much as 150 per cent".
But this interpretation assumes that food labelled as non-GM has to be
absolutely pure. In practice, regulators are likely to allow food to carry
such a label if contamination with GM materials is below a certain level.
The EU, which is currently debating its labelling criteria, is considering
tolerances for GM contamination for individual ingredients of around 1 per
cent.
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