4 PRODUCTION OF GM CROPS AND CO- CO-EXISTENCE
COEX-NET
4.3.2 European conferences and projects on co-existence
GMCC conferences following the initiative of Denmark
The first international conference on co-existence GMCC-03 (GM Crops and Co-existence;
http://www.agrsci.dk/gmcc-03/) was held in Denmark in 2003, and the second conference on co-existence (GMCC-05) (http://www.gmcc05.com/)was held in France in 2005.
At the conferences scientists presented the most recent research results on co-existence studies.
Participants from all Europe and several overseas countries attended the conferences.
The next conference is planned for November 2007 in Seville, and broad international participation is expected (http://teamwork.intbase.com/0703_03/new_index.php).
Co-existence conference in Vienna
Taking the EU Commission’s report on national co-existence measures as part of its starting point, the Austrian EU Presidency held a conference on co-existence on 4-6 April 2006 with participation from authorities and interest organisations within the EU. (EU Commission & Austrian Presidency, 2006).
The Danish Minister of Foods participated as an official speaker and in the discussion panel. The conference confirmed that the co-existence issue still attracts much attention in many member states. Subjects such as the regional perspective and threshold values in seed were discussed.
Nordic conference
Arranged by the Nordic Association of Agricultural Scientists (NJF), DJF held a seminar in March 2006 entitled: ’Aspects of Growing Transgenic Crops’. The seminar included the following subjects:
x Current regulations on co-existence
x Gene dispersal (with focus on seed dispersal)
x Implications in cropping systems and landscape issues x Cost of monitoring in the supply chain.
A total of 23 scientists from Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark participated (NJF, 2006).
Research projects with Danish participation
SIGMEA is a 3-year EU research project with the objective of developing methods, model tools and cropping strategies for evaluation and regulation of environmental and economic consequences of the GM crops oilseed rape, maize and beets (SIGMEA, 2007).
The project consists of 9 work packages
¾ Gene flow
¾ Landscape model generator
¾ Gene flow modelling
¾ Socio-economic factors
The project has 44 participants and will be finished in April 2007. It is coordinated by INRA (France) and NIAB (UK). The Danish participants are the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and the National Environmental Research Institute at the University of Aarhus, the Institute of Food and Resource Economics at the University of Copenhagen and Risø National Laboratory at the Technical University of Denmark.
TRANSCONTAINER is an EU project that began in May 2006 with the objective of promoting co-existence between GM and non-GM agriculture in Europe through the use of stable,
environmentally safe and commercially viable methods for biological containment. At the same time, it is the aim to improve and simplify the regulations on co-existence. The model species of the project are oilseed rape, grasses, sugar beet, birch and poplar (Transcontainer, 2007).
The project consists of 6 work packages:
¾ Project Management and Coordination
¾ Chloroplast Transformation
¾ Controllable Flowering
¾ Controllable Fertility
¾ Technology Impact
¾ Dissemination
The project has 13 participants and will last 3 years: from May 2006 to April 2009. The project is coordinated by Plant Research International B.V. (the Netherlands). The Danish participant is the seed company DLF Trifolium.
The COEXTRA-project works in a close cooperation with SIGMEA and deals with seed production and production/supply chains from the first stage of distribution to end use. Thus, co-existence and detection in primary production are not included (Coextra, 2007).
The project consists of 8 work packages:
¾ Biological approaches for gene flow mitigation
¾ Supply chain analysis – description and modelling
¾ Economic costs and benefits of traceability and co-existence
¾ Development testing and sampling approaches
¾ Development and integration of analytical traceability tools
¾ Technical challenges of GMO detection
¾ Integration with respect to legal, scientific, social and ethical issues
¾ Dialogue and communication
The project has 52 participants, began in 2005, lasts 4 years and is coordinated by INRA, France.
The Institute of Food and Resource Economics, Faculty of Life Sciences at the University of Copenhagen is the Danish participant.
4.4 Developments in Denmark
4.4.1 Administration
Guidelines
Based on the act and the ministerial order on cultivation etc. of genetically modified crops (see Section 3), the Danish Plant Directorate has prepared guidelines for growers of GM crops, suppliers of GM seed, course providers, machinery pools and transport companies as well as conventional and organic farmers who have suffered losses due to GM presence in their crops; these guidelines, however, include only the crops maize, beets and potatoes. The guidelines can be found on the home page of the Danish Plant Directorate (www.pdir.dk).
Control system
The Danish Plant Directorate has made control instructions for the use by inspectors supervising whether the regulations for growing GM crops are observed.
In 2005 there was one field with a GM crop in Denmark. The crop was GM maize, and the field was located at the trial areas of the Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences at Foulum.
The field was supervised by one of the Danish Plant Inspectorate’s inspectors. The inspection showed that the regulations on growing GM maize were observed. The result of the inspection can be found on the home page of the Danish Plant Directorate.
There was no commercial growing of GM crops in Denmark in 2006, and no areas have been registered for commercial growing for the 2007 season. However, for the 2007 season, experimental releases have been registered for several sites in Jutland.
Publication of GM field location
By instruction from the Danish Plant Directorate, the company MapInfo has prepared an Internet map of the location of fields with GM crops in Denmark on the home page of the Danish Plant Directorate (http://gmomark.pdir.dk). The Danish Plant Directorate has also made an agreement with the Danish National Survey and Cadastre on using its maps as background maps.
Provisions for publication of location of fields with GM crops are included in the 2004 act on cultivation etc. of GM crops (see Section 3).
Courses in growing GM crops
In 2006 the Danish Plant Directorate approved Vejlby Agricultural College, Bygholm Agricultural College and the Faculty of Life Sciences at the University of Copenhagen for arranging courses on growing and handling GM crops. Approved course providers can be seen on the home page of the Danish Plant Directorate.
Vejlby Agricultural College has arranged 4 courses and Bygholm Agricultural College a single course in 2006.
The Faculty of Life Sciences at the University of Copenhagen has, in cooperation with the Danish Agricultural Advisory Service at Skejby, arranged a course in 2006 for teachers at agricultural colleges, advisers and employees at trial stations; this course included the elements necessary to be approved as a grower of GM crops.
A total of 104 persons have finished the course on growing and handling GM crops.
GM co-existence across the Danish-German border
In autumn 2006 the Danish Plant Directorate held a meeting with a representative of the state authorities in Schleswig-Holstein on the problems that can be identified in relation to growing GM crops close to the Danish-German border.
At present, both Denmark and Germany have introduced regulations on co-existence, but the regulations are not identical. For example, Denmark has introduced regulations on cropping distances, but such regulations have not yet been established in the German regulations, and the cropping distances, with which the Germans operate at present, are shorter than the Danish ones.
The information on GM field location is not the same in Denmark and Germany either. In Denmark the location of the GM field is shown on a publicly available map whereas only the postal code of the site of the GM field is available in Germany.
Finally, the regulations on compensation and liability in connection with adventitious GM presence in conventional and organic neighbouring crops are different.
The Danish Plant Directorate and the Schleswig-Holstein state authorities will keep in touch in future in order to find practical solutions to the national border problems.
Nordic project on co-existence
In 2005 and 2006 the Danish Plant Directorate headed a Nordic project on co-existence between GM, conventional and organic crops with participation from all the Nordic countries. The project was financed by the Nordic Council of Ministers.
The objective of the project was to study whether a common approach could be identified to the question of co-existence in the Nordic countries. However, at the end of the project only Denmark had so far passed legislation on co-existence. Norway, Sweden and Finland were still at different stages in the drafting of proposals for regulations on co-existence. Iceland was still at the stage of deliberation.
A seminar was held in connection with the project on compensation and liability with contributions from the EU Commission, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, a British research institute and from the Danish industrial organisation, Forsikring og Pension (Insurance and Pension).
The Danish Plant Directorate prepared a report on the project, which was published by the Nordic Council of Ministers (The Danish Plant Directorate, 2007a).