3-Food: Austria fails to get EU backing for labeling of GM feed

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TITLE:  Austria fails to get EU backing for labeling of modified
        feed
SOURCE: Reuters
DATE:   September 27, 1999

----------------- archive: http://www.gene.ch/ ------------------


Austria fails to get EU backing for labeling of modified feed

Brussels - European Union farm ministers rejected an Austrian
proposal to require mandatory labeling of animal feed containing
genetically modified ingredients, heading off a potential blow to
U.S. biotechnology companies and feed exporters. Austrian
Agriculture Minister Wilhelm Molterer, who said labeling is
needed now to boost farmers' certainty pending EU legislation on
modified feed, failed to get backing for the idea at a meeting of
the ministers. Still, EU Consumer Affairs Commissioner David
Byrne said he'll produce a blueprint for a new law requiring
labeling by December.

Labeling of genetically modified feed imported to the EU could
deal another blow to U.S. biotechnology companies such as
Monsanto Co., which face growing European resistance to their
genetically-altered seeds amid health and environmental concerns.
It could also hurt U.S. feed exporters, forcing them to separate
modified ingredients from conventional ones. "If they thought it
was impractical or impossible, then we would lose business -- no
question," said Kendell Keith, president of the U.S. National
Grain and Feed Association, which represents companies such as
Cargill Inc. and Archer Daniels Midland Co.

Biotechnology -- which alters the genetic traits of corn,
soybeans and other crops so they can resist pests or withstand
greater doses of weed killer -- has sparked trade tensions
between the EU and the U.S. as Europe restricts altered foods,
citing health and environment concerns. The U.S. is the biggest
producer of genetically-altered foodstuffs. The debate over the
issue, which until now has centered largely on food for human
consumption, is widening to include animal feed as consumer
concerns intensify on both sides of the Atlantic.

Perdue Farms Inc., the third-largest U.S. poultry company, said
last week it may stop feeding its chickens and turkeys
genetically modified corn. Archer Daniels Midland, one of the
world's largest grain and oilseed processors, said earlier this
month it would pay premiums for crops that aren't genetically
altered. While companies like Archer Daniels Midland have the
resources to separate altered ingredients from traditional ones,
smaller feed producers would have a harder time ensuring their
products are free of modified products, Keith said.

The EU already has specific labeling and approval rules for
consumer food products that contain modified ingredients, such as
canned tomatoes and cookies. No such rules exist for feed, which
falls through the cracks of broader EU legislation on genetically
modified foodstuffs. Byrne said he plans to propose a law on feed
that "will provide for labeling of the fact that the product has
been obtained by genetic modification techniques." The law, which
wouldn't likely take effect for at least a year, will apply to
any feed containing altered DNA or proteins.

The farm ministers, meeting to map out their objectives for the
round of global trade talks to begin in Seattle in November, were
bullish about the need to push the EU approach to food safety at
the talks. The EU "should seek solutions which assure consumers
that the WTO will not be used to force onto the market products
about whose safety there are legitimate concerns," they said in a
draft of the meeting's conclusions.



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