Biotech Updates

U.S. and South American Farmers Unite to Support Biotech

July 20, 2012

The International Soy Growers Alliance, formed in 2007 and composed of farmers planting biotech soybean from the United States, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay met with the European Union food and feed chain representatives of the EU government. The meeting was organized to discuss the importance of biotechnology to feed a growing population and how slow government-approval processes and restrictions based on non-scientific reasoning can cause trade disruption.

"We have delivered a very strong message as we stand together with our South American friends saying that the market is moving forward with biotech events, not only from the United States but from universities in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay as well," said Bob Metz, soybean farmer from West Brown Valley, SD, and vice chair of Unite Soybean Board's Global Opportunities program. "As these new traits come forward, the European Union really needs to find a way to accept these traits in a more timely fashion," he added. 

Currently, the EU has a lengthy approval process on new biotech varieties, affecting soy exports to the EU 27 countries, other European countries, as well as countries that trade with the EU.

See the article at http://www.unitedsoybean.org/media-center/releases/u-s-and-south-american-farmers-unite-to-support-biotech/