Government Researches GM in UK
8 July 2008 A spokesman for the report said that the UK will push to bring the EU system of GM approval up to speed with the rest of the world. “The Government will continue to lobby the EU to improve the regulatory regime for GM products – including speeding-up decisions on the import of GM feed stocks, without prejudicing safety,” he said.
Currently, European GM approval process can take from three to 10 years, and often derailed by member states that wish to remain 100%GM free. That time difference between the EU and the US – which takes around a year to permit new GM — has reduced imports and caused EU feed and food prices to skyrocket. EU figures show the price differential between GM and non-GM feed to be around £50 per ton.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said: “The rise of popular interest in food policy issues, and growing public awareness of the impact of what we choose to eat on everything from animal welfare, to our health and the protection of the environment has seen a massive transformation in Britain’s food culture over the past ten years. This cultural change, along with more recent events in global food markets, has brought new and urgent policy challenges to the fore, which governments must act to meet.”
Brown announced that Defra will soon publish a paper entitled “Ensuring the UK’s Food Security in a Globalised World.”
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