GM crop coexistence developments in the EU by Roger Kalla

Roger Kalla is a valued partner in this website.

Specially for us all at GMO Pundit weblog Roger has completed a briefing paper on GM crop coexistence and GM commodity markets in the EU. As there is a lot we Australians can learn from the European experience, GMO Pundit is especially thankful for his contribution.

Roger's paper is archived at The Full Monty and starts with this Preamble:

EU lifted its ‘de facto’ moratorium on the authorisation of genetically modified (GM) crops for importation and cultivation in 2004 at the same time as Australian State Governments introduced moratoria on the cultivation and marketing of genetically modified (GM) canola. In the following I have compared different European national regulatory regimes aiming at achieving crop coexistence. They follow on from the adopted EU wide labelling standard for GM crops and foods. The alternative legislatory approaches taken by individual European member states to achieve coexistence, and the analysis of the underlying political aims of these enacted or drafted regulations, will serve to enlighten the Australian political debate on what important EU markets accept as thresholds for accidental presence of authorized GM crops in non-GM crops. Moreover they address the important issue of who should be held liable for any economic damage resulting from the accidental presence of authorized GM crops in conventionally grown crops.