The open letter “Food Industry For Freedom of Choice” garnered huge support from food companies – many of them household names, such as REWE Group, the third largest food retailer in the EU, the leading retailer in Austria, SPAR Austria, Europe's largest drugstore chain dm-drogerie markt, and the world's largest organic supermarket chain Biocoop.
A high-level meeting
The letter was handed over to Dr István Nagy, current EU Council President for Agriculture and Fisheries in Budapest earlier this month by Gunther Weiss, Head of Quality Management at Alnatura, on behalf of the signing companies. He and Alexander Hissting, Managing Director of the Association Food without Genetic Engineering (Verband Lebensmittel ohne Gentechnik,VLOG) met with the Hungarian Minister to lay out the strong concerns of the businesses that signed.
As explained in the letter, the food industry in Europe is seriously concerned about the EU Commission’s proposal to deregulate New GMOs. In the letter, the companies call for mandatory labelling and traceability for all products produced with New GMOs (as agreed by the European Parliament). They highlight that many of their customers are sceptical about GMO products. Consumers want to decide for themselves whether they want to buy and eat GMOs – that’s why labelling is vital.
Companies call for fair competition
The signatory businesses also point to the fact that a diverse food market allows for different types of products and that “raw materials and products that have been produced without the use of genetic engineering are part of a diverse food market and should remain so.” They raise the alarm about the costs of New GMOs, stating: “we are also united by the belief that those companies that introduce new technologies must take responsibility for their business decisions. In line with the polluter-pays principle, they must pay for the costs incurred, which arise above all for those who want to exclude NGTs from their supply chains.”
Transparency = detection methods, protection against contamination = coexistence measures
In the letter, the companies are also clear that to fully meet the rights of consumers to know what is in their food (and to avoid NGTs if they wish to) and to ensure a level playing field in the food industry, the law around New GMOs should ensure that:
- Companies that want to place NGTs on the EU market must provide detection methods, reference material and data on the genetic modification during the authorisation procedure.
- An EU-wide binding legal basis on which Member States must adopt detailed coexistence measures that permanently protect agriculture and the food industry from contamination with category 1 and 2 NGTs.
EU agriculture ministers have not yet been able to agree on a common position on the EU Commission's deregulation plans. Only once this has happened the trilogue between Commission, Council and European Parliament can start in order to negotiate a new EU law on NGTs.