"Bio-Land" Austria on retreat in gene controversy
24 Jul 2001
Austria Presse Agentur

Vienna (APA) - Austrian hopes to become a main European biological [organic] food producer are being threatened by international firms inexorably spreading gene-altered seeds.  Soon, environmentalists fear, the alien crops will be everywhere. Farmers will stare skywards and no longer know what the windswept pollen over their heads really is.

Thousands of hectares of Austrian fields were already said to have been planted with seeds including proportions of genetically altered BT 11 maize.

Earlier this month, Health Minister Herbert Haupt warned of possible danger to the environment, with pollen drifting to nearby fields with other crops.  He ordered the firm of Pioneer to recall genetically altered maize seeds sold to farmers. Those who had already planted it should be "informed".

Critics slammed his decree as being too late, weak and inadequate, and accused him of negligence.  By now the crops are in full bloom. And Austria, up till now one of Europe's most radical opponents of gene-altered foods, appears in retreat against  the overwhelming power of transnational business.  There is little remaining of the former position of a total ban on gene-altered seeds.