GERMANY: European supermarkets will soon stock genetically modified food from Germany after the ruling Green Party dropped its long-standing opposition to finally agree GM guidelines.
Ms Renate Künast, the Green Party agriculture and food minister, said the cabinet would agree strict guidelines next month for growing and labelling GM products.
"I reckon genetically modified corn will be appearing in European supermarkets in the autumn at the latest," said Ms Künast, to the Berliner Zeitung newspaper yesterday.
She remains opposed to GM crops, the official position of the Green Party, but said that the looming April deadline to label GM foods in the EU had forced her hand.
"For the first time, the consumer will have the right to choose. And farmers will receive clear guidelines," she said.
The Green-controlled Agriculture Ministry rejected GM foods, while the Social Democrat-headed Economics Ministry was anxious to allow GM foods to encourage the biotechnology industry.
From April, all food created from GM produce will be labelled, except where the GM products are no longer detectable after manufacture.
The new laws will create a register for farmers to list all GM-crop sites in the country.
A spokeswoman for the agricultural ministry said consumers and not the biotechnology industry were the focus of the new laws. "There are already 60 million hectares of GM crops planted worldwide. The floodgates are long open. This is about helping consumers decide," she said.