The UK Government is pressing the EU to address the issue of GM crops to avert feed costs spiralling out of control.
Fears that feed prices could be driven prohibitively high by current EU policy have been raised by all sectors of livestock farming – including the egg industry. In April this year we reported the view of economic analyst Peter van Horne, who told those attending the International Egg Commission conference in London that expenditure on feed could increase by as much as 600 per cent for egg producers if the EU did not act. The British Government has now raised the issue as part of a study on the country’s future food security.
The main problem is soya. The major soya producing countries in North and South America have moved towards GM crops and growers are increasingly using varieties that have yet to be approved in Brussels. Peter van Horne warned in his report to the IEC that the EU needed to speed up the approval process for new varieties and adopt a more relaxed approach to the varieties awaiting approval to avoid a crisis.
Now the UK Government is also saying that the EU needs to improve the approval system. "They need to speed up the time it takes to approve new varieties," said a Defra spokesman. "That is what the Government is saying."
He said that did not mean the EU had to compromise on safety. "However, if countries like Argentina and Brazil stop growing varieties that are approved by the EU that could lead to serious problems in terms of animal feed."
The issue of GM has been raised by the Government with the publication of the country’s first food security assessment. As he launched the assessment, Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Secretary Hilary Benn said the UK would need to change the way food was produced and processed so that the country continued to enjoy healthy, affordable food in the decades ahead. Later, speaking on radio, he urged Brussels to accept a speedier GM authorisation process. He said, "If GM can make a contribution then we have a choice as a society and as a world about whether to make use of that technology, and an increasing number of countries are growing GM products."
Alongside the food security assessment, the Government published a number of other documents, including a report called ’Food Matters; One Year On’ This is an update of the Government’s 2008 Cabinet report on food policy. It is in this report that the worries about the EU’s GM approval system are raised. The Government had asked for two pieces of research into GM and its implications for animal feed – one by Defra and one by the FSA. The new report shows that both pieces of research point to potential problems for the livestock industry.
The new report says, Defra "confirms that if soya feed imports from South America were curtailed because of problems with the EU GM regime, it could have a serious effect on livestock production. There would be little scope for alternative soya supplies, and use of other protein feeds would cost more and be less efficient."
The FSA says, "the supply of GM and non-GM soya are of immediate concern to the animal feed industry. There are likely to be parallel issues for the food industry in the future which may have implications for consumer choice."
Peter van Horne detailed his fears in his report to the IEC. He said all three of the biggest soya producers were moving to GM. Some 90 per cent of the soya beans grown in the United States were now GM, Argentina was predominantly GM and Brazil – the smallest GM producer of the big three – was now 60 per cent committed to genetically modified soya. It was estimated that by 2010 the percentage of Brazilian soya dedicated to GM would have risen to 80 per cent.
He said, "New varieties of GM crops are coming to the market and they will need to be approved by the EU." With the wide spread of GM crops, the EU’s zero tolerance of GM varieties awaiting approval, together with its slowness in approving new varieties, it was likely that in the near future feed sourcing problems would become more severe. He said the EU needed to speed up its approval process to help ease the problem. "Two to three years is a long time," he said. The EU also needed to move away from a zero tolerance of new varieties awaiting approval, he said.
Strong demand for soya in China is adding to the pressure in the market, and it is reported that some shipping companies that transport grain to the EU are increasingly wary of accepting grain cargoes, fearing hefty costs if any crop is contaminated with a non-approved GM variety. In the EU, any product containing an unlicensed GM crop variety is illegal and must be removed from sale. Cargoes are tested at ports by EU officials. Any crop found with GM material must be destroyed or returned to the exporting country. Shippers have raised transportation charges to cover the risks.
When Hilary Benn launched the food security assessment, he said the issue of food security was an important one. "Last year the world had a wake-up call with the sudden oil and food price rises. While we know the price of our food, the full environmental costs and the costs to our health are significant and hidden," he said.
"We need a radical rethink of how we produce and consume our food. Globally we need to cut emissions and adapt to the changing climate that will alter what we can grow and where we can grow it. We must maintain the natural resources – soils, water, and biodiversity – on which food production depends. And we need to tackle diet-related ill health that already costs the NHS and the wider economy billions of pounds each year.
"And because we live in an interconnected world – where the price of soya in Brazil affects the price of steak at the local supermarket – we need to look at global issues that affect food security here.
"That’s why we need to consider what food system should look like in 20 years, and what must happen to get there. We need everyone in the food system to get involved – from farmers and retailers to the health service, schools and consumers."
The issue of GM is expected to be on the EU agenda in the autumn.
