The European Union (EU) with its epicenter in France, which is the hard core of agricultural protectionism on the continent, has systematically opposed the adoption of genetically modified (GM) seeds, which are the basis of advanced agriculture;
And so, when GM technology arrived in Europe in 2000, the attack by French farmers was massive, even brutal;
and the test fields of the new seeds were destroyed by the demonstrators, without the scientific and health arguments of the world's leading experts, who insisted on the absolute harmlessness of these products for the health of the population, having had the least effect, and they were not even heard.
Products originating from GM seeds were characterized as "Frankenstein foods"
, and that absolutely false Saint Benedict has remained in the media to this day.
This was the criterion used by the European Court of Justice in its ruling of 2018, when it ruled on the basis of the risks caused by GM -non-existent-, while it did not mention its enormous possibilities.
The effect of the Ukrainian War with the high energy costs that it has caused, added to the impact of climate change and high temperatures,
now forces Europe to modify its policy, and discard its cultural prejudices
about genetically modified seeds ( GM).
The Ministers of Agriculture of 27 European countries demanded in September last year from the Brussels-based European Commission (EC) the deregulation of GM with a view to its large-scale use, which would happen in the first quarter of 2023.
Last year the European continent experienced one of the five highest temperatures in its history, and
in Spain the extreme heat destroyed half of its olive harvest in 2022
at a high social and economic cost, especially in Andalusia and Almería.
This
now forces a turn to the new genetically modified seeds
with an anti-drought gene;
And this happens when the price of energy –Ukrainian War through- has increased more than 700% in the last two years, which hits agricultural production above all.
This reality is what is overcoming the resistance of traditional French agricultural protectionism, converted into a "defender of nature".
In the last three years,
more than 15 countries in the world have admitted the full adoption of GM seeds
, among them China, India and Australia;
and Great Britain, since its withdrawal from the European Union 3 years ago through Brexit, has begun to liquidate the self-regulation of Brussels, in view of a general deregulation of the British economy.
China has become, after the purchase of Syngenta, the great Swiss agricultural technology company, the head of the new GM seeds;
and it already has 75% of the world patents in this frontier item.
The People's Republic has also decided to drastically shorten the commercial approval period for new patents, taking it from 6/8 years to 1/2 years.
The European Union is the world's largest importer of agricultural products, above all corn and soybeans, which are essential for animal feed;
and the vast majority of these imported products are the result of the large-scale use of genetically modified (GM) seeds.
The decision to approve the intensive use of GM seeds is part of a process of turning to innovation
that European agriculture is undergoing, in the search for less capital-intensive production, and based on a new link between production and biologically rooted nature.
This does not imply in any way a return to the past, behind the recovery of an idyllic pre-industrial agriculture, but
is based on the findings of the most advanced biotechnology
, converted into the biological expression of the 4th.
Industrial Revolution.
As such, what this agriculture does is assume the logic of life as its own, and for this it uses the cutting-edge technologies of genetic engineering, which is the spearhead of scientific and technological knowledge of the 21st century.
Europe, in short, seems to be coming out of the protectionist and hyper-regulated past, centered in Brussels, which is the kingdom of bureaucracy and the tomb of innovation.
look too
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