“Food production is due to double by 2050 but it is difficult to see how there can be any more land on which to grow crops”, said Yann Fichet, Director of Institutional and Industrial Affairs at Monsanto-France, addressing the members of the PACE Committee on the Environment at a hearing on genetically modified organisms (GMOs), in preparation for a report on this question by Jean-François Le Grand (France, EPP/CD). He added, “Monsanto is committed to continuing to improve seed, doubling the production of certain types of crop and helping to bring about a rise in farmers’ living standards”, pointing out that in 2009, 14 million farmers in the world had grown 134 million hectares of genetically modified crops. “They had a choice”, he said, “and the best way of addressing the challenges of tomorrow is to offer people a choice today”.
However, Michel David, national secretary of the French Farmers’ Confederation, claimed that French farmers were opposed to “totalitarian-style agriculture”, involving the imposition of patents. Such an approach gave rise to many concerns because of its potential health consequences. Doubts were also expressed by André Apoteker, campaign director for Greenpeace-France, who felt that the studies carried out so far had not revealed any short-term risks but provided no answers as to the long-term consequences. The uncontrolled proliferation of GMOs in the environment was consequently a matter of great concern. Mr Apoteker said that it was impossible today for both GMO farming and conventional farming to exist side by side unless, as a result of this proliferation, you were prepared to oblige those who rejected GMOs to consume them all the same.
Mr Le Grand is due to present his draft report to members of the Committee next September.
