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EU won't buy US wheat if biotech varieties grown
(Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2003 -- CropChoice news) -- DTN, 10/17/03: WASHINGTON -- European millers will stop buying North American wheat
if the US and Canadian governments allow commercial production of genetically
modified wheat, a representative of the National Association of British and
Irish Millers and the European Millers Association warned today. In an interview
with DTN, Peter Jones, a wheat buyer for Rank Hovis Ltd., a British milling
firm and the chairman of the NABIM wheat committee, appealed to Monsanto,
a developer of GMO wheat, and US and Canadian authorities not to commercialize
GMO wheat until European consumers find it acceptable. Monsanto has applied
to the US and Canadian governments for authorization to sell genetically
modified wheat seed on a commercial basis.
This is the first time British and Irish millers have taken a formal position
on the commercialization of genetically modified wheat in North America.
Genetically modified wheat is currently being grown in the US only in carefully
guarded experimental test plots in order to avoid its proliferation into
the general crop.
Jones told DTN that European millers buy 2.5 to 3 million metric tons
of high protein North American wheat for bread making. He said three quarters
of a million metric tons go the United Kingdom, one million tons go to Italy
and the rest is spread throughout the other European Union countries. The
four largest supermarket chains in the United Kingdom, which handle 70 percent
of the food sold in the country, have demanded that baked goods contain no
genetically modified organisms, Jones said. The millers have been able to
tell their customers so far that flour does not contain genetically modified
wheat because it is not commercially available.
European millers would not buy non-GMO North American wheat if GMO wheat
is grown because the non-GMO wheat is likely to contain tiny amounts of genetically
modified material that European consumers would find unacceptable, Jones
said. He added that the new European Union food safety agency is checking
foods for content and has established a "name and shame" policy for violators
of its restrictions and that branded food companies do not want the negative
publicity that would be associated with the discovery of even small amounts
of GMO wheat. Jones said if North America starts growing GMO wheat the Europeans
would probably buy high protein wheat from Australia or increase the use
of high protein German wheat in their blends.
Jones said he was speaking officially for NABIM, but that he is also on
the policy committee of the European Millers Association and that large European
millers have told him they also would refuse to import North American wheat
if farmers begin to grow genetically modified wheat on a commercial basis.
Jones said he was holding informal meetings with wheat industry officials
in Washington today and that next week he would be taking his message to
Canadian authorities and the Canadian Wheat Board, the sole exporter of western
Canadian wheat.
The British and Irish Millers are "not anti-GMO as a body, but we can't
entertain the idea if our customers are oposed to it," Jones said.
On Wednesday, Monsanto announced it would close its crop research unit
in Cambridge, England. | |
