Posted on 12-2-2003

Europeans Resist Gene-Altered Foods

Reuters, photo shows demonstrators in a field near Chalôns-sur-Marne,
France. The sign's message translates as "Genetically modified plants equal
danger. Everyone is affected." By LIZETTE ALVAREZ

At the Happy Apple greengrocer in this Elizabethan town in England's West
Country, the roasted vegetable pasty is labeled, clearly and proudly, as
GM-free. So is the hommity pie and a scattering of other products crammed
onto shelves. In fact, all across Britain and most of the rest of Europe,
shoppers would be hard pressed to find any genetically modified, or GM,
products on grocery store shelves, and that is precisely how most people
want it.

Tinkering with the genetic makeup of crops to make them faster-growing and
more resilient, something done routinely in the United States with seldom a
pang of consumer concern, is seen here as heretical, or at the very least
unhealthy. In some countries, including France and Austria, there is an
unofficial moratorium on the sale of genetically modified foods. Such foods
simply cannot be found there. "It's not the natural order of things, that's
all," Heather Baddeley, who was picking up lettuce and avocados at the
Happy Apple, said about GM foods. "It's a kind of corruption, not the right
thing to do, you know?"

Robert B. Zoellick, the United States trade representative, does not agree.
He recently called Europe's stance on genetically modified food "Luddite"
and "immoral," saying that Europeans' fears about GM foods had persuaded
some famine-ridden countries in Africa to reject genetically altered
grains. Some Europeans believed that Mr. Zoellick was in effect blaming
Europe for starvation in Africa. David Byrne, the European Union's health
and consumer protection commissioner, said: "The U.S. government, including
Republican leaders in Congress, accuse Europe of using the issue of
genetically modified food as a way of keeping out American exports." "What
Bob Zoellick said over the last few weeks has been unhelpful, clearly. It
was unfair. It was wrong."

The European Union finances nongovernmental organizations, but it is those
groups themselves, not the European trading bloc, that have moved in some
cases to steer Africans clear of genetically altered grains, Mr. Byrne
insisted. "The E.U.'s position on genetically modified food," he added, "is
that it is as safe as conventional food." That may be the official line at
European Union headquarters in Brussels. But public sentiment in much of
Europe, successfully stoked by environmental groups, is now so fiercely
opposed to genetically altered food that in Austria, for example,
politicians have won elections by vowing to keep "Frankenfood" at bay. Many
supermarket chains across France, Britain, Italy and Austria, among others,
yanked all genetically modified products from their shelves three years ago
and are in no hurry to restock them. Most recently, hundreds of Europe's
most respected chefs banded together to form a group called Euro-Toques to
battle the biotechnology lobby.

American companies like Monsanto stand to make enormous profits if Europe
allows the importing of more genetically modified foods.

A decision by the European Parliament on stricter labeling of genetically
modified foods could be made as early as summer, and European officials
hope that may make the food more acceptable, by clarifying exactly how it
is made. But there is concern in the United States that the labeling will
only alarm European consumers more. The proposed rules would trace
genetically altered substances in corn, tomatoes, feed and oils and make it
clear to consumers which products contained at least 0.9 percent of a
genetically modified substance. The products concerned include highly
refined corn oil, soybean oil and glucose syrup produced from cornstarch.

In France and Italy, Europe's two food meccas, public revulsion at GM food
runs especially deep. "U.S. culture is different from European culture,"
said Lorenzo Consoli, a Greenpeace expert on genetic engineering. "Here,
there is a very strong feeling that links culture and food. And here there
is much more the idea that science is not church or a religion. It is not
enough anymore for European consumers to have somebody with a white coat, a
professional, say it's O.K."