Coexistence of conventional, organic and GM crops from an European Unión Governance

Abstract

The cultivation of GM crops has expanded significantly worldwide. The area under GM crop cultivation, at the international level, increased from 1.7 million hectares in 1996 to more than 160 million hectares in 2011. However, in the European Union (EU) only two GM crops are authorised for cultivation –Bt maize and Amflora potato–, primary because of social distrust of GM food. This social distrust is derived from concerns about the negative effects of GMO for both human health and environment, and non-GM products can command a price premium on the market. In this context, the coexistence regulation has acquired a leading and controversial role at EU level. Coexistence has been planned and designed in order to guarantee farmers’ right to opt for conventional, organic and GM crop production, depending on their profitability prospects. Therefore, coexistence definition involves economic and normative aspects related to the accidental admixture of GM crops with conventional or organic ones (ex-ante regulations and ex-post liabilities). Nevertheless, the EU bases the coexistence on the principle of subsidiarity, which implies a multi-level governance framework. Thus, the EU only sets up some general guidelines, and different regulations can be found across EU Member States. In this regard, two main questions have arisen due to the potential repercussions from this EU approach to crop coexistence. First, how can the principle of subsidiarity contribute to achieve the above-mentioned aim of coexistence rules, i.e., to guarantee the farmers’ right to opt for any production orientation? Second, are the Member States actually employing the multilevel governance approach established by the EU for coexistence to preserve the farmers’ rights? This paper intends to answer these questions by assessing the EU framework on coexistence, as well as EU Members’ laws and proposals on this subject. Next, we study the coexistence proposal made by Spain, as this is the EU Member State with a higher production of GM crops. The analysis concentrates on the potential micro-level effects of coexistence regulation for conventional, organic and GM crop farmers, emphasising the ex-ante regulations and ex-post liabilities.