Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
economic impacts of coexistence measures in agricultural production
(Menrad, 2003):
Short-term financial losses in case of contamination with GM mate-
rial (e.g., via cross-pollination, volunteers, mixture of GM and non-
GM crops).
Insurance and liability costs.
In case a contamination with GM material has happened, mid-term
costs for reducing or removal of the GM contamination.
Costs of establishing and handling monitoring, segregation, and label-
ing systems.
Wider impacts of coexistence of GM crops on agricultural and food
markets, production, and processing structures as well as trade flows.
The estimation of cost effects or economic impacts of coexistence
schemes or measures is further complicated by the fact that agricultural
production systems and structures differ significantly between EU mem-
ber countries and regions. This is one important reason why so far no
generally accepted coexistence schemes and measures have been sug-
gested by agronomists due to differing biologic characteristics of farm
crops and regional production systems (Menrad, 2003). Furthermore, the
necessary coexistence measures highly depend on the adoption rate of
GM crops in a specific region as well as the threshold levels of adven-
titious admixture that are tolerated by existing regulations. Case stud-
ies on the regional effects of differing coexistence measures indicate
that there might be a substantial proportion of fields that are cultivated
with non-GM varieties likely to be influenced by cross-pollination of a
GM crop (e.g., herbicide-tolerant rapeseed, Bt maize). In particular, this
refers to regions with small-scale fields and high relevance of the poten-
tial GM crop in crop rotation. Generally, the affection rates of conven-
tional crop areas are substantially lower compared to the rate of affected
farms, indicating the high potential of conflicts among farmers partic-
ularly in regions with intensive growing of arable crops and dispersed
landscape pattern. To quantify the exact costs of coexistence measures
