The German parliament has passed a controversial legal amendment that will protect farmers who grow conventional crops from any contamination by genetically modified versions.
The decision by the Bundestag on Friday means that GM farmers will be financially liable for any economic damage caused if their crops contaminate neighbouring non-GM products. The amendment now has to pass through the Bundesrat, the chamber of the federal states. The process is likely to be completed by the end of 2004.
The ruling obliges farmers of GM produce to take precautionary action to prevent 鈥渕aterial negative effect鈥� from their GM crops on neighbouring non-GM crops. For example, GM farmers should lay down minimum distances between fields.
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A negative financial effect would include a situation, for example, where a conventional farmer was obliged to label their produce as 鈥済enetically modified鈥� owing to cross-contamination. Under European Commission legislation, any produce which contains more than 0.9% GM material must be labelled as GM produce.
Certified organic farmers unable to label their produce as organic could also claim. The change in law will additionally demand a site register of where all GM crops are grown, as well as a compensation scheme.
鈥淏iological experiment鈥�
Environmentalists welcomed the law. 鈥淭his law is good news for hundreds of millions of Europeans who do not wish to participate in the biggest biological experiment of our time and who want to eat food that is GM-free,鈥� says Geert Ritsema of Friends of the Earth Europe. 鈥淭his law should now be the benchmark for similar legislation in other EU member states.鈥�
But some farmers were unhappy with the move, with the German farmer鈥檚 union, DBV, expressing its 鈥渞egret鈥�.
鈥淭he consequences of the law will be that research and development [of GM crops] are neglected, which are necessary to assess in an impartial way the advantages and disadvantages of this green genetic technology,鈥� it says.
鈥淭his will have catastrophic consequences,鈥� says Heinrich Cuypers, managing director of BioConValley, a federation of north German biotech companies. 鈥淚t will set the use of biotechnology in agriculture back years,鈥� he told the UK鈥檚 Financial Times newspaper.
The new law also introduces the idea of joint and several liability where it is not clear which farm caused contamination if several neighbouring farms cultivate GM crops. 鈥淎 farmer who has sustained damage will be free to decide which neighbour to claim compensation from,鈥� states the amendment.