Author: Bruce Stafford
Publication: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Date: Friday, November 21, 2003

The eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt is attempting to spur the federal government into allowing the use of genetically modified crops in Germany, while trying to get in on the ground floor should the controversial technology finally get the green light in this country.

Saxony-Anhalt officials said this week that they were already looking for potential investors under a plan announced earlier this month that would see the state put up as much as EUR150 million, or $178 million, in subsidies over the next five years to encourage the biotechnology sector and the production of genetically modified crops in the state.

A problem for the state, one of Germany's most economically depressed, with an unemployment rate of 19.3 percent, is that the federal government has yet to establish a legal basis to implement a European Union law passed in July that gives EU member states the authority on whether to allow the use of so-called “GM technology“ on their territories.

There appears to be little support for the Saxony-Anhalt project in Berlin, where the Greens are the junior partner in the government coalition, and many consumers and environmental groups are mounting stiff opposition to the legalization of the technology, though it is widely used and deemed safe in many places, including North America.

Just last month, Berlin ordered a halt to field testing of genetically modified apple trees at the Leibnitz Institute in Saxony-Anhalt and the state's plan to subsidize the technology brought a reminder from the federal government that any field trials would require its approval. A spokesperson for the German Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture Ministry said that, “questions upon questions“ remained open, and that there was no legal foundation for the initiative.

Horst Rehberger, Saxony-Anhalt's economics minister, was undeterred. “We are in desperate need of practical experience,“ he said, adding that his state foresees itself leading the way when - and if - Germany embraces biotechnology. Construction will begin next year on the “Biopark,“ an industrial area in the city of Gatersleben that his government hopes will attract biotech companies and give a boost to the state's struggling economy.

A major reason for opposition to genetically modified crops being grown even on a test basis in Germany is that the seeds from these fields could cross-pollinate conventional and organic crops, making them worthless because of strict limitations on the sale of genetically modified foods to consumers. The German Farmers Union favors testing, but only if there are adequate measures to protect farmers whose crops are affected by “cross-contamination“ from experimental fields.