Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
in ten conveyed their concern about the use of GM products in food or
drinks.
In the European Commission funded reseach project “Consumer
Choice,” polls were conducted in ten EU countries during 2006 and 2007.
In countries in which GM products were available in shops at the time
of the polls (the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, and
the UK), only 20 percent of buyers actively avoided such products. The
checking of data of actual purchases against answers to questions about
their preferences and intentions from the purchasers revealed that most
of the responses are not a reliable guide to what purchasers do in the
shops. The authors of the study therefore regard it as likely that in many
European countries GM products would be bought if they were offered
for sale.
49
It is quite reasonable to presume that in the EU public, risk per-
ceptions and attitudes have had negative impacts on the commercializa-
tion of GM foods. At least in Germany there are almost no GM plant
derived foods on the shelves of supermarkets. According to a 2006 sur-
vey, however, 93 percent of cattle and pig feeds and 89 percent of poul-
try feed in Germany had been found to contain GMmaize, soybean, and
rapeseed.
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Conclusion
Whereas the safety of conventionally bred crops is taken for granted
based on a history of safe use, the placing on the market of GMOs re-
quires a pre-market safety assessment. The EU legislation on GMO and
derived food and feed provides that only GMO derived products
that have been demonstrated to be as safe as their conventional
counterparts are authorized and can thus be commercialized. The
EU legislation on GMO provides for a transparent safety assessment
49
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/biohealth/research/nutritional/consumerchoice/
downloads.html.
50
Bendiek, J. and Grohmann, L. 2006. GVO-Kontrolle von Lebensmitteln, Futtermitteln
und Saatgut: eine bundesweite Ubersicht. J. Verbr. Lebensm. 1: 241-245.
