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EU clamps down on GM rice
23 August 2006
Friends of the Earth has welcomed today's announcement by the European Commission that all consignments of US long grain rice must be tested to ensure that they do not contain an unauthorised genetically modified rice strain. But, the environmental campaign group has stressed that this incident highlights the need for new, tighter EU measures to prevent future contamination incidents from occurring.
Friends of the Earth GM campaigner, Adrian Bebb said:
"We are pleased that the European Commission has taken action to stop imports of this contaminated rice, but it must go further and prevent similar incidents happening again. The EU and UK Government must put robust measures in place, including comprehensive and routine testing, to ensure that food illegally contaminated with GM material is kept out of the our food chain, and that people's right to choose GM-free food is protected.
"This incident highlights once again that the biotech industry is out of control. In Europe, we should learn a lesson from this and be extremely cautious about growing genetically modified crops ourselves."
The emergency measures announced today by the European Commission , will mean that, with immediate effect, consignments of US long grain rice will not be allowed into the EU unless they have been tested by an accredited laboratory using a validated testing method and are accompanied by a certificate assuring the absence of LL Rice 601. The Commission also declared that Member States should carry out controls on products already on the EU market, to ensure that they are free from the unauthorised GM rice [1].
This latest case of GM contamination follows a similar incident in March last year in which the biotech company Syngenta admitted to selling an experimental and illegal GM maize variety to US farmers for four years. This led to maize exports to Europe being contaminated.
Notes
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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust
Last modified: Jun 2008
