GM Crops: Industry 0 - Protesters 1

Severin Carrell reports on the mass exodus of Europe's biotech companies from genetically modified crops

Europe's biotech firms have cancelled millions of pounds worth of research into genetically modified crops, sending the industry into a steep slump, a new study has found.

The European Commission has admitted that nearly two thirds of the EU's biotech companies have cancelled GM research projects over the past four years, mainly because of the controversy over the safety and labelling of GM crops, and continuing consumer resistance.

The Commission also found that the number of GM field trial applications fell by 76 per cent last year, from the 250 submitted in 1998 to a level not seen since 1992. By comparison, US field trial bids have remained relatively stable at about 1,000 a year.

The Commission's gloom deepened after an opinion poll of 16,500 people showed deep-rooted disquiet about GM crops. Although 44 per cent of Europeans believed medical biotechnology would improve their lives, only 36 per cent supported GM foods.

Philippe Busquin, the European Research Commissioner, complained that "unjustified fears and prejudice" were severely damaging the EU's economic prospects.

"The increasingly sceptical climate is scaring European biotech companies and research centres away," he claimed. "If we do not reverse the trend now, we will be dependent on technologies developed elsewhere."

In a bid to counter this problem, he is ploughing another €2.25bn (£1.52bn) into life sciences research.

The survey also underlined the public sector's increasingly leading role in biotech R&D in Europe. Only 22 per cent of research institutes and 25 per cent of university institutes abandoned GM projects, compared to 68 per cent of the big biotech firms.

Anti-GM groups said Mr Busquin appeared to have ignored evidence that investors were nervous about the viability of biotech companies. One study by the London-based Institute for Science in Society said share values in leading US biotech firms dropped 43 per cent last year.

Sue Mayer, of campaign group Genewatch, said the sector had failed to justify claims it could quickly produce GM crops with improved nutritional or health properties, and had suppressed damaging results from trials.