GM crops up to EU governments

THE EU agreed to let its national governments go their own way on the cultivation of genetically modified crops in a bid to end years of regulatory gridlock that fuelled trans-Atlantic trade tensions. The European Parliament yesterday voted to allow individual EU countries to ban the planting of gene-altered crops so member nations that favour such seeds may gain easier approval from the bloc to grow them. The legislation, which was endorsed by the EU assembly in Strasbourg, France, dents a free-trade tenet of the bloc, reflecting the deep split in Europe over biotech foods. The law gives its national governments, when it comes to cultivating gene-altered crops, an opt-out from rules that are making the 28-country EU a single market. The opt-out option will accompany or follow any EU authorisation to grow such foods, known as gene-modified organisms, or GMOs. – Bloomberg