GM Crops (Hansard, 18 November 2003)

§ Mr. Weir
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) what recent meetings she has had with her EU counterparts at which plans to change the procedure for approval of GM(a) foods and (b) seeds within the EU were discussed; [138218]
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(2) what recent meetings she has had with her EU counterparts to discuss regulation of GM crops; and if she will make a statement. [138219]

§ Mr. Morley
Ministers from the Department have regular discussions with their EU counterparts on issues relating to genetically modified crops, seeds and foods. The issue has, in particular, featured on the agenda for several recent meetings of Councils of Agriculture and Environment Ministers.
For instance, at the Environment Council in July 2003 EU Ministers agreed to two new EC Regulations. One Regulation elaborates and extends existing rules on traceability and labelling of any GM product. The other Regulation sets up a more centralised and specific regime for the authorisation and labelling of GM food and animal feed, focused on the new European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). It introduces, for the first time, specific rules on GM animal feed and requires the safety aspects of any GMO intended for use in both foods and feed to be considered together.
At a meeting of the Agriculture Council in September 2003 there was a discussion on the European Commission's guidelines on the co-existence of GM and non-GM crops. Final EU decisions on pending applications for consent to grow GM crops are not expected until next year.
EU discussions on the setting of thresholds for adventitious presence of approved GMOs in non-GM seeds are currently being conducted at official level.

§ Gregory Barker
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on the effects she estimates the adoption of genetically modified crops in the UK would have on(a) the cost of farming and (b) profits for farmers. [138807]

§ Mr. Morley
As part of the GM dialogue process the Government have sponsored the Strategy Unit to carry out a study of the costs and benefits of GM crops, They published their report on 11 July. Comments were invited on the report and a summary of these will be published later this year.
The main conclusions of the report were that existing GM crops could offer some cost and convenience advantages to UK farmers. However, any economic benefit to the UK is likely to be limited in the short term as only a narrow range of existing crops are currently suited to UK conditions and weak consumer demand is likely to limit take-up. Looking to the longer term, future developments in GM crops have the potential to offer more wide ranging benefits to farmers and consumers.

§ Andrew George
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what recent evidence there is on the impact of the effect of herbicide use on GM maize, with particular reference to levels of herbicide use; and what assessment has been made of that evidence. [139019]

§ Mr. Morley
The recently published results of the farm-scale evaluations represent the largest study ever made of the impact of herbicide use on GM maize. A copy of the results have been placed in the Library.
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The results of the farm-scale evaluations, and the results of other published work, are currently being considered by the Government's statutory advisers on GM crop releases—The Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment (ACRE). Their advice is expected in December or January.

§ Andrew George
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what discussions she has held with the Royal Society in respect of herbicide regimes used within the farm-scale evaluations. [139020]

§ Mr. Morley
Ministers from the Department have held no discussions with the Royal Society regarding herbicide regimes in the farm-scale evaluations.

§ Andrew George
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether decisions will be made by her Department in respect of applications to grow GM crops in the UK before the final results of the farm scale trials are published. [139154]

§ Mr. Morley
[holding answer 17 November 2003]The final results for three of the four GM crops tested in the farm scale evaluations (beet, forage maize and spring-sown oilseed rape) were published in October 2003. The results for the other GM crop (autumn-sown oilseed rape) will be published next year. Our statutory expert advisers on GMO releases—the Advisory Committee on Release into the Environment (ACRE)—are considering the results for the first three crops and we expect their advice in December or January.
Decisions on whether or not any particular GM crop should be authorised for commercial use in the EU are subject to collective agreement by all EU member states. It is not possible to say precisely when these EU decisions will be taken, but we do not expect any decisions on current applications to cultivate GM crops until well into next year.
There are currently 21 applications for proposed commercial GM products being processed across the EU, 12 of which include cultivation of GM crops (no such application has been made in the UK). Of the 12 applications for cultivation, 10 have not yet completed their initial assessment by the member states in which the applications were made; the other two have received favourable initial assessments, and have been forwarded for scrutiny and comment to the European Commission and all other member states. Neither is a GM crop involved in the farm scale evaluations and in both cases the UK has objected to the applications on the grounds that the applicants have not yet supplied sufficient information for us to make an adequate risk assessment of the likely effects of the GM crops in question on the environment.
The GM forage maize in the farm scale evaluation trials (Bayer T25) already has a consent under EU GM safety legislation for commercial cultivation throughout Europe. This was granted in 1998. Based on the FSE results, the UK will reach a view on whether this consent should be maintained, altered or revoked. Other member states will also need to consider this.