Last week, I was in Brussels. Having worked there for six years, only now on a return visit, can you see what remains the same and what has changed. As ever, it was good to see some old faces and make new acquaintances.
European Voice, an approximation for an in-house weekly newspaper for the EU nomenklatura, is almost the only channel for non-EU experts to discover any idea as to what might be happening at this level of European government. It seldom fails to produce a story that is of interest to one group of lobbyists or the other. Its lead story was 'Barroso lacks sherpas for GM escape route'
It is now ten years since the NGO community set Europe apart from the rest of the world with a bewildering range of claims about the dangers of genetically modified food. The French see GM as a symbol of the dangers of the 'Anglo-Saxon' globalised economy. For the UK organic community, represented by many a Prince, a Lord, a Sir and other categories of nobility, it was a challenge to what their inferiors might call a 'nice little earner'. Others predicted a tsunami of cancer cases and some blamed GM for the decline of the honey bee. An otherwise charming woman at a GM conference in Vienna asserted that biotechnology was to blame for the spread of MRSA in NHS hospitals and an aggressive US foreign policy that had led to the invasion of Iraq.
Of course, in the UK, there are plenty of people who bemoan the ability of the EU to churn out volumes of laws and regulations every hour. Yet, in the case of GM, after a successful US-led WTO challenge to the current rules, ten years seems insufficient for the civil servants to have realised that world food production is now a deadly serious economic issue.
Recent increases in food prices have persuaded some to think again. For Michel Barnier, the French agriculture minister, the answer to unspent CAP funds is to divert even more money to EU (read French) farmers. The UK government's approach seems as hesitant as ever, despite many in the NFU demanding the same rights as farmers in other EU states to use the GM technology. But the media seems to be looking at the issue afresh. From today's Sunday Times - 'Scientists have genetically engineered some fruit and vegetables to help fight disease and provide far more nutrients. They are the first modifications to offer nutritional benefits to consumers.' Five years ago, who would have predicted that might appear in a UK newspaper?!
But as more and more now fall into EU food poverty, how can the European Voice discover that a lack of junior staff, Sherpas in Brussels-speak, is now delaying a decision on GM yet further? And it's not just about rising staple food costs - as Graham Brookes, an agricultural economist puts it in the Sunday Times: ' Since 1996, British farmers have missed out on an estimated £500-£600 million of additional income'
Maybe, after the next Brussels visit, things may have changed. I am not banking on it.
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