Politics of the Well Fed
29 January 2008 Two of our news items below — those regarding France’s rejection of its only permitted biotech corn variety and Poland’s attempt to ban genetically modified (GM) crops altogether — send a clear message that Europe’s anti-GM movement still has plenty of muscle. I am, of course, speaking generally here; I’m aware that not all of the EU, nor even everyone in these particular countries, are opposed to biotech. But the message is still clear that the popular stance against GMs is stronger in Europe than anywhere else in the world.
I have discussed this first-hand with a few people from outside agriculture that I met in Brussels several years ago, as I ate lunch in a small restaurant. While this is only the opinion of a few people, and should not be misconstrued as the view of an entire country (or Union of countries), it did give me an insight into how some Europeans feel on the topic.
At the time, the region was only shortly removed from Mad Cow Disease, and had experienced more than its fair share of food scares. The lingering fears about food were seized upon by the leaders of the strong environmental movement in Europe, and many facts had been skewed.
Their arguments were reasonable and mostly cautionary. However, they were not entirely reasonable; I asked them if they would eat GM foods if they had absolute, concrete scientific evidence that the products were safe — to a man, they said no.
I mention this not to criticize their views; consumer preference is consumer preference, it will call the shots, regardless of the motivations behind it. But it does strike me that as the profitability and yield benefits of biotech crops are proven and re-proven in each year’s crop in GM-friendly countries, that it is likely to become a more and more expensive undertaking to be GM-free. And as the population climbs around the globe and more food is required, it also will increasingly become a political decision that is taking food out of someone’s mouth. Simply put, more people cannot eat forever on the same (or less) land without improvements in production. And biotech crops have shown their ability to improve production. When they are ignored for political purposes, I hope that those consumers, and the states that sponsor the anti-GM sentiment, are aware that their decision reaches farther than their own dinner tables. There’s a hungry and growing world out there that feels the effects as well.
In other words, it takes a full belly to be anti-biotech.
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