Former EU agriculture commissioner calls for positive GMO policy

New political measures are needed to ensure that global food demand is met in an environmentally sustainable way, said Franz Fischler, who argued in favour of GMO technology to help produce new food crops that meet changing climatic conditions and can be used in biofuel production.

"We need a modern policy framework which enables our farmers to meet world food demand in an environmentally sustainable way," said Fischler, speaking at a forum on the future of EU agriculture on 27 March 2008.

The former agriculture commissioner said that a market-driven approach to agriculture cannot deal with issues such as environmental security. "Participants in this conference acknowledge market failure in respect of food security and environmental security. Neither receives sufficient government attention or support," said Fischler, currently chairman of the RISE foundation, which supports and monitors rural private investment.

As for the current EU debate on GMOs, the former commissioner said that the problem regards real benefits for consumers. "As long as we are not able to demonstrate to consumers that there is a benefit, their consumption behaviours won't change."

In addition to this, there are "two fundamental open problems" linked to the debate. The first, he said, is that the agricultural sector must in future also produce new plants which are not used for food and feed but for other purposes, such as biofuels. "For these non-food purposes, GMO techniques could play an increasing role."

The second question is climate change and the need to adapt plant varieties to new climatic conditions in a way that allows plants to consume, for example, less water. "The discussion here is to know whether there is enough time to do this through traditional breeding methods or whether the development is so fast that it will be necessary to use GMO techniques which can produce new varieties far more quickly," said Fischler.