Press and Photo Gallery
STICKY END FOR HONEY PRODUCERS
Thursday 22nd April 2004
Honey production could be bought to a sticky end following a vote in the European Parliament today. MEPs have accepted a report that calls for all honey to contain less than 0.9% trace of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), in order to be classified as non-GMO.
Although there is little chance that honey in the UK will contain more than 0.9%, the recent decision by the British Government to allow GM crops to be grown commercially poses a threat to honey producers.
Timothy Kirkhope, MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber said:
"We have many small scale honey producers in the UK that produce excellent and succulent organic and GM free honey. There lies a problem in Margaret Beckett's recent support for the commercial growing of GM crops.
If Beckett were to follow up her license to grow GM maize with a license on GM oil seed rape then we may be in a fix. Bees haven't yet learnt to read signposts that warn of GM crops and will happily forage all over GM oil seed rape and maize. The Food Standards Agency could then legitimately call for tests on all honey to be sure that it complies with this new regulation.
Not only would the testing procedure be difficult but it would also be expensive and time consuming. We might then be in the ridiculous situation of putting 'May contain GM' labels on our honey pots. Honey makers would be burdened with unnecessary legislation which could force them out of business."
