EC acts against GM food contamination
adventitious - unintended and unavoidable - presence of GM material
in non-GM food.
The science-based reference point is designed to support any future implementation of coexistence measures within the EU.
The case studies covered include crop and seed production of maize and sugar beet. The report also examined the feasibility of producing conventional seeds in Europe under different thresholds for the presence of GM seeds.
It concludes that crop production at the 0.9 per cent threshold set by the EU is feasible, with few or no changes in agricultural practices, if adventitious GM presence in seeds does not exceed 0.5 per cent.
The production of seed up to 0.5 per cent GM seed would be possible with little or no change in current seed production practices.
However not everyone will agree with this assessment. "Contrary to the promises made by the biotech industry, the reality of the last ten years shows that the safety of GM crops cannot be ensured," Nnimmo Bassey of Friends of the Earth (FoE) Nigeria said recently.
And opponents will also point to the fact that European consumers remain largely sceptical of the technology, should be better protected.
However, the report says that it looked in detail into the effectiveness and feasibility of measures such as the introduction of isolation distances between GM and non-GM fields, sowing a non-GM maize buffer strip around GM fields and using GM varieties with different flowering dates compared to non-GM varieties.
The report concluded that conventional (non-GM) seed production in Europe with adventitious GM presence not exceeding 0.5 per cent is feasible with few (maize) or no changes (sugar-beet) of current seed production practices.
For maize seed production, such changes would build on existing practices, namely the implementation of larger isolation distances than those currently used to separate maize seed and maize crop production fields.
But for some this is not enough. "The current proposals for keeping seed and food crops free from GM contamination are pathetic, said Pete Riley, senior food campaigner at Friends of the Earth.
Unless separation distances between GM and non-GM crops are greatly increased widespread contamination is inevitable."
The new report accepted that guaranteeing that maize seeds contain no more than 0.1 per cent adventitious GM presence is not possible if co-existence measures are limited to action on individual farms or coordination between neighbouring farms.
The Commission will shortly publish a report on the measures taken across the EU, which will be fed into a conference to discuss the issue, co-hosted with the Austrian presidency, to be held in Vienna on 5-6 April. Following the conference, the Commission will decide if any further action needs to be taken at EU level.
