Food Standards Agency
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Before a genetically modified organism (GMO) can either be grown or marketed in the European Union (EU), it must be granted a marketing consent (i.e. authorised) under European Community (EC) legislation (EC Regulation 1829/2003) laying down the authorisation procedures for GM food and feed (the GM Food and Feed Regulation).
This requirement applies to both living GMOs such as rapeseed and soya beans, and to animal feed ingredients derived from the processing of GM crops. The authorisation procedure includes a safety assessment by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). On the basis of these assessments, there is no reason to suppose that GM feed presents any more risk to farmed livestock than conventional feed. GM feed, which is very unlikely to contain viable GMOs, is digested by animals in the same way as conventional feed. Food from animals fed on authorised GM crops is considered to be as safe as food from animals fed on non-GM crops.
Back to topThere have been some concerns that functional transgenes from GM-derived feed material might be incorporated into livestock products for human consumption (milk, meat and eggs). However, in a statement published on 20 July 2007, EFSA advised that 'Biologically active genes and proteins are common constituents of food and feed in varying amounts. After ingestion, a rapid degradation into short DNA or peptide fragments is observed in the gastrointestinal tract of animals and humans. To date, a large number of experimental studies with livestock have shown that recombinant DNA fragments or proteins derived from GM plants have not been detected in tissues, fluids or edible products of farm animals like broilers, cattle, pigs or quails'.
Back to topBefore the GM Food and Feed Regulation came into force, ten plant lines with potential use in animal feed had been licensed for commercialisation in the EU under EC Directive 2001/18 on the deliberate release into the environment of GMOs (the Deliberate Release Directive). Five of these authorisations were revoked in March 2007 following their owners' decision to withdraw the products from the market. Another five plant lines have since been authorised by the Commission under the GM Food and Feed Regulation. There are therefore ten GMOs authorised for use in the EU, as follows: four herbicide-tolerant and insect-resistant maizes (from Monsanto, Pioneer and Syngenta), three herbicide-tolerant maizes (from Bayer, Monsanto and Syngenta), one insect-resistant maize (Monsanto), a herbicide-tolerant soya bean (Monsanto), and a herbicide-tolerant sugar beet (Monsanto). Only two of these GMOs – maize varieties from Bayer and Monsanto – have been licensed for cultivation in the EU; the other eight have been approved for import and processing only. Small quantities of GM maize are currently grown commercially in eight Member States: Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania.
When the GM Food and Feed Regulation came into force, there were products on the European market derived from certain plant lines which had not been authorised under the Deliberate Release Directive because there was no intention to commercialise the plants themselves in the EU. These GM-derived products – obtained from four types of maize, five types of cotton, three types of oilseed rape and two types of yeast – are also authorised under the GM Food and Feed Regulation pending their evaluation by EFSA and decisions on their continued use.
Back to topBefore 18 April 2004, GM material for feed use was not required to be labelled. Since then, however, labelling has been required for feed materials that contain GM or GM-derived material. Labelling is not required for consignments containing adventitious or technically unavoidable traces of GM, up to a threshold of 0.9% for GM varieties approved in the EU. Until April 2007, there was a second threshold of 0.5% for varieties that had received a favourable scientific assessment but had yet to be authorised in the EU, but this was a temporary arrangement which has since expired.
Back to topA larger number of GM plant lines, including varieties of maize, soya, oilseed rape and cotton, which have not received marketing consents in the EU have been approved for growing elsewhere in the world – particularly North, Central and South America, China, India, the Philippines and South Africa. As commodity-exporting countries have adopted GM crop technology, supplies of feed materials to the UK have contained an increasing proportion of GM-derived products, a trend which is likely to continue. Maize and oilseed products in particular have an important role in animal feeding and are major sources of energy and protein, which would be difficult to replace. Imported soya and maize by-products (notably soya bean meal and maize gluten feed) account for approximately 20% of the raw materials used by UK feed manufacturers and farmers.
Back to topData on the quantities of imported feed materials that may be GM or GM-derived is not collected. However, the US Department of Agriculture estimated that in 2007 GM accounted for 73% of the US maize crop, 87% of the cotton crop and 91% of the soya bean crop. The second largest producer of GM soya beans, by volume, after the USA is Brazil, where GM accounts for 65% of the crop. 40% of Brazil's cotton production is GM, and it expects to commence growing GM maize in 2008. In Argentina, 99% of soya plantings and 65% of maize plantings are GM. GM now constitutes 69% and 66%, respectively, of Chinese and Indian cotton output. The UK routinely imports soya bean meal, maize gluten feed and cotton meal from all of these countries.
The global area of GM crops for 2007 was 114.3 million hectares in 23 countries (up from 102 million hectares in 22 countries in 2006 and 90 million hectares in 21 countries in 2005). This was the twelfth consecutive year of increase in the area devoted to GM crops, with much of the increase being in developing countries, who were responsible for 43% of the world's GM crop production. GM crops now occupy over 8% of the world’s cultivable arable land, an area equivalent to approximately five times the size of the UK.
The table below shows (in hectares) the quantities of GM soya, maize, cotton and oilseed rape grown worldwide in 2007 as a proportion of the total harvests:
Sources: Food Standards Agency; Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; US Department of Agriculture; American Soybean Association; International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications
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