Report Highlights:
On February 8th, the French Minister of Research will present a biotech bill to the French Council of Ministers, a precedent to its progression to the Parliament, where it will be debated. The bill is expected to include a national framework for GM and non-GM coexistence as well as a system for dealing with farmer liability due to adventitious contamination. Anti-biotech lobbyists are demanding that French legislators consider the two recent French court decisions that commuted sentences of biotech test plot destroyers as showing support for a non-biotech posture in France.
The French are currently working on legislation to transpose EU Directive 2001/18 on biotechnology into French law.This legislation, called the biotech bill, will introduce national rules on coexistence, streamline the French procedure for evaluation of biotech products and increase the scientific review panel to include a civil society representative as well.(see FR5051, FR5060, FR5084, and FR5088).The French Minister of Education and Research announced recently that he will present the biotech bill to the French Council of Ministers on February 8th.The bill will move shortly thereafter to the French Parliament where the Senate is expected to debate the bill in March followed by a debate and vote by the National Assembly in June.After both houses have reconciled their versions and signed the bill, implementing regulations must still be drafted and approved.The current text of the bill is available on the website of the French agricultural weekly paper “Agra Presse:” http://www.agrapresse.fr.Although the French biotech bill will not be finalized by the Parliament by 2006 spring corn plantings (the earliest year of implementation is 2007), the area planted to GM corn in France is expected to increase significantly in 2006.
The coexistence portion of the bill establishes conditions on those cultivating biotech crops.First, biotech farmers will have to adopt a code of good cultural practices.Second, they must set a buffer zone around each biotech field (shaded area in image below at left).Third, biotech crop producers will have to declare the crop (location, area and nature of it) to the French Board for Arable Crops (ONIC-ONIOL).And lastly, biotech producers will have to have a means to provide redress for their liability to traditional farmers in case of a mix between conventional and biotech crops.
Under provisions in the bill, farmers may either offset their potential liability through private insurance or make contributions to a government administered compensation fund.This fund would be used to offset the negative economic impact of an adventitious GM presence above the labeling threshold in a non-biotech harvest.While the law will set a contribution ceiling of 100 € per hectare, French Ministry of Agriculture officials expect the final tax will not exceed 13 to 15 € per hectare.GM seed producers and distributors will also be asked to contribute to the compensation fund.