TMCnet News
European Biotech Debate Embraces Climate Change(BioWorld International Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) EU Roundup BRUSSELS, Belgium - The European debate on biotechnology becomes even more diverse this week when the biotech industry defends its legitimacy as a climate-change warrior, while hunger strikes spread in Poland in pursuit of a biotech ban. Adroitly adopting the sustainability terminology that has gained such prominence as fears grow over global warming, the European biotech industry association, EuropaBio, has launched a new pitch to win farmers' rights to plant GM crops. "Fresh water is one of the world's most valuable resources, and in the future, it is going to be even more precious," said EuropaBio's Nathalie Moll. "Worldwide, agricultural biotechnology could play a significant role in providing farmers yield stability during periods when water supply is scarce by mitigating the effects of drought - or water stress - within a plant" Areas of high water stress in Europe are likely to dramatically increase in the coming years, she predicted, but "what is less certain, is if and when EU farmers, whose land is currently 80 percent rain-fed, will be offered the choice of growing crops, which can reduce water loss and improve drought tolerance." Drought-tolerant maize seeds could be commercialized by 2012, and field trials already have shown significant yield enhancement, as well as offering reduced fossil fuel use, carbon dioxide emission and soil erosion. The only way to exploit that resource is if new GM crops are approved for cultivation, Moll insisted, arguing that "in the European Union today, farmers don't have the choice about what they grow because new GM crops are not being approved." Meanwhile, the inveterate Polish anti-GMO campaigner Jadwiga ?opata has started a hunger strike in support of two women farmers - Edyta Jaroszewska and Danuta Pilarska - who have been on a hunger strike outside the Polish Ministry of Agriculture in Warsaw since mid-March in protest of their government's refusal to ban GM crops. A "GMO-free Poland" campaign also has won the backing of a national association of independent farmers who have adopted the iconic name of "Solidarno??" [solidarity], in an evocation of Poland's struggle in the 1980s against communism. Polish officials have discouraged the hunger-striking women, but their attempts to allay the protesters' concerns so far have failed. "The response from the minister of agriculture, received on Friday, March 20, did not change anything. We need to continue the hunger strike, and now we will also be going to the office of the prime minister," the striking women said. Julian Rose, president of the International Coalition to Protect the Polish Countryside, has taken what he described as bundles of letters of support to Warsaw: "Whole heaps of letters addressed to Prime Minister Donald Tusk, very dramatic, showing direct support for the hunger-striking farmers and their demands," he said. "Everyone is speaking with one voice to say 'no' to GMOs, including from people in Austria, Hungary, France and Greece, where governments have already introduced GMO bans." EU Moves Toward Faster Patent System The European Union has moved one step closer to the harmonized patents regime that biotechnology firms - particularly smaller firms - have been demanding for years. It could dramatically improve legal certainty and access to patent dispute procedures. A new court structure would have jurisdiction both for existing European patents and for future EU-level patents. European Commissioner Charlie McCreevy, responsible for the single EU market, said: "European businesses find the current patent litigation system complex, slow and costly. Once agreed, a unified system with a dedicated unified patent court would make patent litigation more predictable, faster and less expensive, helping to stimulate innovation, competitiveness, growth and job creation in Europe." The risks currently associated with EU patent litigation, together with the lack of a unitary patent title in Europe, hamper access to the patent system, particularly for smaller firms and individual inventors. It is predicted that by 2013 the creation of the new system would result in total private cost savings of up to ?289 million (US$350 million) a year. But the results will take time. The new move consists of a recommendation to EU ministers to provide EU officials with negotiating directives for the conclusion of an agreement creating a Unified Patent Litigation System. It should result in an agreement between the EU, its member states and the European Patent Convention. n ? ? Copyright ? 2009 Thomson BioWorld, All Rights Reserved. |