Canada had given the European Union until February 11 to change its policies on genetically modified foods. The country wants to be able to export genetically modified Canadian products — such as canola oil — to the European market.
Canada’s got a WTO (World Trade Organization) ruling to back up its demand. In November 2006, the WTO ruled that the EU had violated its obligations by missing the deadline to end its restrictions on GMOs (genetically modified organisms). The complaint against the EU’s tardiness was brought to the WTO by Canada, the US and Argentina. If the EU doesn’t comply with the WTO’s ruling, it could be forced to pay millions of dollars in trade sanctions.
But Europe is not to be bullied. Opposition to GMOs is on the rise in all of its 15 member states, despite the intense marketing efforts of international agribusiness. Major European food chains, such as Tesco, have decided not to stock genetically modified foods. In the EU, GMOs can only be placed on the market after having undergone a stringent science-based risk assessment on a case-by-case basis. Even American-trade-friendly French President Nicolas Sarkozy surprised everyone by siding recently with the anti-GMO activists, banning a GM crop of corn being grown in France.
Canadian consumers are not so lucky. Despite the fact that the majority of Canadians share similar anti-GMO views to their European counterparts, their government is unwilling to represent them, allowing labeling of GM foods to remain voluntary in Canada and undermining the international moratorium on “terminator seeds,” a form of seed designed to deliberately be sterile after first harvest.
Canada is far behind its trans-Atlantic trading partners. According to GMO-free Europe, more than 174 regions, including over 4500 municipalities and other local entities and tens of thousands of farmers and food producers in Europe have declared themselves “GMO-free” in a commitment to forbidding the use of GMOs in their agriculture and food. Some of these regions are found in Austria, France, Spain , the UK, the Scottish Highlands & Islands, Wales, Greece and Italy.
Ten years after the first commercial release, 90% of GMOs are still being cultivated in just four countries : USA (55%), Argentina (19%), Brazil (10%), Canada (6%). Some of the main dangers associated with GMOs are an increased use of herbicides and pesticides, the production of toxins, of allergic reactions, of antibiotic resistant bacteria, and irreversible genetic pollution, a decreased nutritional value in food, and damage to the biodiversity of our natural world.
This article was published Saturday, February 16, 2008.
