London (24.4.09) – It is reported from Germany (1) that Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel has warned against too much immediate hostility to GM crops, stressing instead that there must be an open political discussion.

Her Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner, who earlier this month issued the ban on MON810, said she would review again an application by BASF for trials of the GM potato Amflora.

Frau Merkel noted that millions of Euros had been invested in Amflora in the expectation that trials would take place. She commented that while “the ban on the MON 810 GMO maize was an individual decision” (whatever that might mean), the Christian Democratic Party she heads should retain an open mind about biotechnology which could become in future a key feature of agriculture.

There may be some appreciation in German government circles of the damage the MON810 ban has caused – and will cause. It is idle to expect overt U-turns from governments but we might in the course of time find that the ban has in fact been dropped for reasons which would no doubt be advanced at the time; perhaps “new evidence” will be forthcoming or an admission that the evidence on which the ban was based was not quite all it was cracked up to be.

The German Research Minister agreed that, while the fear of new technology had to be taken seriously, the debate cannot be about fear alone. Which leads one to wonder why Germans are so fearful. Could there be something lacking in their understanding of these matters, something which suggests that an improvement would be helpful both in their science education programmes and the ways of dealing rationally with new and unfamiliar ideas?

Source:

Andreas Moeser and Michael Hogan (24.4.09). Merkel calls for calmer debate on GMO crops. Reuters (http://uk.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUKTRE53N2PD20090424)

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