Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Commentary
  • Published:

Going to ridiculous lengths—European coexistence regulations for GM crops

Nature Biotechnology volume 28, pages 133–136 (2010)Cite this article

Subjects

Even if a GM crop can surmount Europe's excessive product registration process, any farmer hoping to plant it must then navigate tortuous, arbitrary and scientifically unjustifiable coexistence regulations.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: The many routes to adventitious presence of GM material in a conventional crop.

References

  1. James, C. International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications Brief No 37 (ISAAA, Ithaca, NY, USA, 2008).

  2. Brookes, G. & Barfoot, P. Co-existence in North American Agriculture: Can GM Crops Be Grown with Conventional and Organic Crops? (PG Economics Ltd., Dorchester, UK; 2004).

  3. Devos, Y. et al. Agron. Sustain. Dev. 29, 11–30 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Sanvido, O. et al. Transgenic Res. 17, 317–335 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. European Commission. Off. J. Eur. Commun. L189, 36–47 (2003).

  6. Brookes, G. Coexistence of GM and Non-GM Crops. Current Experience and Key Principles (PG Economics Ltd., Dorchester, UK; 2004).

  7. Kalaitzandonakes, N. in Proceedings to the Second International Conference on Co-existence Between GM and non-GM-based Agricultural Supply Chains, Montpellier, France, November 14–15, 2005 (ed. Messéan, A.) 29–30 (Agropolis Productions, 2005).

    Google Scholar 

  8. Ramessar, K., Capell, T., Twyman, R.M., Quemada, H. & Christou, P. Nat. Biotechnol. 26, 975–978 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Ramessar, K., Capell, T., Twyman, R.M., Quemada, H. & Christou, P. Mol. Breed. 23, 99–112 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. European Commission. Off. J. Evr. Commun. L268, 24–28 (2003).

  11. Abbott, A. & Schiermeier, Q. Nature 450, 928–929 (2007).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Asociación Profesional de Empresas Productoras de Semillas Selectas (APROSE). Guía 2007 de Buenas Prácticas para el Cultivo de maíz Bt. (Asociación Profesional de Empresas Productoras de Semillas Selectas, Madrid, Spain; 2007).

  13. Corti-Varela, J. in Proceedings to the 2nd Annual Cambridge Conference on Regulation, Inspection and Improvement, Cambridge, UK, September 11–12, 2007. http://www.cbr.cam.ac.uk/pdf/Corti_Varela_Paper.pdf

    Google Scholar 

  14. Binimelis, R. J. Agric. Environ. Ethics 21, 437–457 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Beckmann, V., Soregaroli, C. & Wesseler, J. Am. J. Agric. Econ. 88, 1193–1199 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. EuropaBio. EU Court rejects Austrian biotech ban—supports right to choose biotech crops (EuropaBio, Brussels) http://www.europabio.org/articles/PR-Austrian_ECJ_070914.pdf (14 September 2007).

  17. Messean, A., Angevin, F., Gomez-Barbero, M., Menard, K. & Rodriguez Cerezo, E. in Technical Report Series of the Joint Research Center of the European Commission (Institute for Prospective Technological Studies, Sevilla, Spain; 2006). http://ftp.jrc.es/EURdoc/eur22102en.pdf

  18. Aylor, D.E. Agric. For. Meteorol. 123, 125–133 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Devos, Y., Reheul, D. & de Schrijver, A. Environ. Biosafety Res. 4, 71–87 (2005).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Paterniani, E. & Stort, A.C. Euphytica 23, 129–134 (1974).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Brookes, G. et al. GM Maize: Pollen Movement and Crop Co-existence. (PG Economics Ltd., Dorchester, UK; 2004).

    Google Scholar 

  22. Luna, V.S. et al. Crop Sci. 41, 1551–1557 (2001).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Cruz de Carvalho, P. (coordinator). Coexistência Entre Culturas Geneticamente Modificadas e Outros Modos de Produção Agrícola. Relatórios de Acompanhamento. (Ministério da Agricultura, do Desenvolvimento Rural e das Pescas/Direcção-Geral de Agricultura e Desenvolvimento Rural, Lisbon, 2009). http://www.dgadr.pt/?cr=12551

  24. Scientific Committee on Plants (SCP). Opinion of the Scientific Committee on Plants Concerning the Adventitious Presence of GM Seeds in Conventional Seeds (European Commission, Brussels, Belgium; 2001).

Download references

Acknowledgements

Research in our laboratory is funded by MICINN (Ministry of Science and Innovation), Spain (BFU2007-61413); European Union Framework 6 Program – The Pharma-Planta Integrated Project LSH-2002-1.2.5-2; European Union Framework 7 Program-SmartCell Integrated Project 222716; European Union Framework 7 European Research Council IDEAS Advanced Grant (to P.C.) Program-BIOFORCE; Acciones Complementarias (MICINN) BIO2005-24826-E. Centre CONSOLIDER on Agrigenomics funded by MICINN, Spain.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Koreen Ramessar and Teresa Capell are at the Departament de Producció Vegetal I Ciència Forestal, University of Lleida, Lleida, Spain.,

    Koreen Ramessar & Teresa Capell

  2. Richard M. Twyman is at the Department of Biological Sciences, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK.,

    Richard M Twyman

  3. Paul Christou is at the Departament de Producció Vegetal I Ciència Forestal, University of Lleida and the Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats, Passeig Lluís Companys, Barcelona, Spain.,

    Paul Christou

Authors
  1. Koreen Ramessar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Teresa Capell
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Richard M Twyman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Paul Christou
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Paul Christou.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Table 1

State of coexistence legislation and mandatory isolation distances proposed by the different EU member states (PDF 109 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Ramessar, K., Capell, T., Twyman, R. et al. Going to ridiculous lengths—European coexistence regulations for GM crops. Nat Biotechnol 28, 133–136 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt0210-133

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt0210-133

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing: Translational Research

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Translational Research newsletter — top stories in biotechnology, drug discovery and pharma.

Get what matters in translational research, free to your inbox weekly. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Translational Research