Last month, France made steps towards protecting the cultivation of GM produce in the wake of damage being done to crops by environmental groups. Amid discussion over the health and safety of GM crops, the lower house of parliament and the Senate have both agreed to push through a controversial bill which fixes the conditions under which GM crops can be grown in France.

Protecting GM
The bill, which was passed by the Senate in April and is due for review at the end of May, permits heavier prosecution of those caught tampering with or damaging crops, protecting what is Europe's largest cultivation of GM crops. Since 1996, the land used to grow GM crops in France has quadrupled from 5,000 hectares to over 21,000 today.

However, this bill does not permit farmers to plant fresh GM crops, as the planting of new seeds was temporarily banned by French premier Nicholas Sarkozy in October 2007. The ban was put in place while the president requests further research to be conducted into the safety of GM crops on human health.

Prosecution for crop destruction
The new GMO bill comes after the EU set guidelines for each nation to adhere to in order to protect GM crops in Europe and to prevent cross-contamination with non-GM crops. If caught, this new law would put environmentalist campaigners such as the famous Jose Bove from Greenpeace, into prison for up to two or three years for destroying crops. Fines will also be dished out to the amount of 75,000 – 150,000 euros for acts of violence against GM crops.

Cross-contamination worries
For groups such as Greenpeace, the main concern is down to cross-contamination with non-GM crops through pollination. The fact that scientists are still unsure as what to GM's long-term health effects on humans are, worries protestors. Arnaud Apoteker from Greenpeace thinks that the distinction between GM and non-GM crops is not sufficiently categorised and that there is room for error and contamination. "We think they'll say that non-GM means a little GM, or up to a threshold of 0.9 per cent. That means the law is going to legalise contamination with GMOs. This fails to protect GMO-free agriculture."

It will be interesting to see whether the issue of cross-contamination is brought up in the review of the bill, scheduled for later this month.

Monsanto crops banned
Despite the complaints, Greenpeace are backing the bill as it is essentially working to separate most GM and non-GM crops. This may prove to be another coup for environmental agencies, who were rejoicing in early April over the Government's ban on the cultivation of a particular type of GM corn from the US agribusiness Monsanto. Who knows, they may win the fight yet.