Prospects of GM-crops in southern Bavaria

BAVARIA, Germany - Bavaria is the largest German state, located in the South-East corner of Germany, bordering Austria and the Czech Republic. Officials in the southern part this state, in so-called Lower Bavaria, appear to have been more receptive to demands of growers and industry to allow genetically modified crops than has been the norm in the rest of Germany. The township of the Lower-Bavarian town of Deggendorf has the largest surface area of any German township, which had been reserved for the planting of GM crops. Since the area reserved for the enhanced crops lays near the border with Upper Austria, which is a self-declared GM-free zone, the farmers on the Austrian side of the border are up in arms. The Austrian farmers are afraid of outcrossing of the GM-crops - or as they put it - of contamination of their conventional fields by genetically enhanced crops. Two other privately cultivated areas used for the cultivation of genetically engineered corn are in the Lower Bavarian townships of Freising and Erding. The rest of the locations with transgenic corn are state-owned properties, all in the same South-Eastern corner of Germany. Through the cultivation of GM crops on state-owned lands, Bavaria wants to evaluate what long-term side-effects can be expected as a result of cultivation of the enhanced crops. President of the state agricultural office, Jakob Opperer, expressed his opinion that, “It makes no sense for Bavaria to stick its head into the sand when worldwide there are already more than 400 million hectares of transgenic crops, and if Bavaria and Germany want to keep up they must make a start.” Opperer assured the traditional farmers that they have nothing to fear from the cultivation of transgenic crops on state-owned property. One of the ways the state wants to protect the neighbouring farmers is over-sized spacing between fields with GM crops and the neighbouring fields. According to the new German genetic engineering laws, anyone who wants to plant transgenic crops has to register his fields in the local registry which is open and visible to all interested parties even through internet. This enables farmers to know whether or not one of their neighbours is planting transgenic crops. Modelled after neighbouring Austria, which has banned transgenic crops, Bavarian ODP political party wants to achieve a similar state-wide ban on GM crops through a petition. "Source":[ http://www.checkbiotech.org/root/index.cfm?fuseaction=news&doc_id=12129&start=21&control=218&page_start=1&page_nr=101&pg=1]

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