MORE than 50 per cent of Europeans are in favour of biotechnology, according to the latest survey of EU opinions.
The European Commission’s Maive Rute told the Crop World conference on Monday that the latest EU barometer survey showed a softening of opinions towards the technology.
In the survey, due to be published within a few days, 53 per cent of respondents said they see the value of, and supported, biotechnology and believe it can bring many benefits to society.
However, Ms Rute, the Commission’s director for biotechnologies, food and agriculture research, warned support was less strong for GM food crops than other applications of biotechnology, such as the non-food products or environmental benefits.
She said support varied across the EU but was strongest in Estonia, where 75 per cent supported the technolgogy, and weakest in Austria, where only 30 per cent were in favour.
She said consumer attitudes were vital to the future of GM crops as public opposition had been a big factor in the slow progress of the technology in Europe up to now. She urged GM scientists to engage more with NGOs and the public to promote the benefits of GM technology.
Also speaking ion the same platform at the ExCeL Centre, London, Rik Miller, from DuPont Crop Protection, said improving the cultivation of biotech crops could have a ‘dramatic positive impact’ on the world food supply.
But he warned that regulatory procedures in some parts of the world are causing trade disruption in GM products and delayed development of the new technologies that ‘could lead to a great increase of grower productivity and deliver an improved global food supply’.
He called for a harmonised predictable science-based regulatory system for GM and said the public and private sectors must work in partnership on this and other solutions to feeding the world’s growing population.
He said, while the first generation of GM crops were mainly about inputs used by farmers, the next generation was focusing much more on output traits, such as yield, making crops more drought tolerant and the more efficient use of nitrogen.
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