ORAMA applauds the establishment of France’s high level council on biotechnology [Haut conseil des biotechnologies], officially announced on April 22.  It will be chaired by a person unanimously accepted by the scientific community and whose independence is beyond doubt.

It has taken almost a year for the legislation on GMOs to eventuate in this first tangible form, and ORAMA regrets that so much time has been wasted in a situation where the do-nothing strategy has had consequences.
 
We must now hope that the new authority will take swift action to deal with the issues covered by its mandate and ensure, as required by law, the freedom to consume and farm either with or without GM produce.  There is no such freedom at present.  The year 2009 will be a zero GM year and, for the first time since 1987, there will not be even one single trial.
 
This is a major issue which is at stake as France is now lagging behind.  The support plan which has 45 million euros for biotechnology was announced at the FNSEA congress by the Prime Minister, Mr. François Fillon, but it will only be meaningful if innovation can be applied to produce tangible developments.
 
Furthermore, the development of environmentally-friendly, high-performance production techniques, which is the case of Bt maize, is one solution available to help field crop farms recover some of the competitive advantage they have lost through the recent CAP health check. 
  
Contact ORAMA : Anne KETTANEH - tél : 01 44 31 10 96 et 06 83 22 05 01