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GM honey needs a GM label

The EU Court of Justice says GM pollen in honey needs full food safety approval, beekeepers pay for MON810


What you can do

Please write to Commissioner Dalli asking for his assessment of an “adequate” separation distance between a beehive and a GM crop.

You can email to Commissioner Dali at the address below or write to DG Health and Consumer Policy, European Commission, Rue de la Loi 200, B-1049 Brussels, Belgium.

 

 

 

Points to include:

  • What does the Commission consider an “adequate” separation distance to be between a beehive and a GM crop given:
  • Honey bees are known to travel long distances (up to 9.5 kilometres) in search of pollen (see Protecting Bees, Beekeepers and Honey from Contamination in Wales at www.gmfreeze.org), and
  • Researchers in Japan have demonstrated that maize can cross-fertilise at distances of at least 1200 metres.

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Background to this action

In September the European Union Court of Justice (ECJ) issued a landmark ruling that honey contaminated with GM pollen must go through full GM food authorisation and carry a GM label before it can be marketed in the EU. This applies even if the pollen is non-viable and no longer able to fertilise flowers.

 

The case was brought by Bavarian beekeeper Karl Heinze Bablok after his honey was contaminated by a field trial of GM Mon810 maize on land owned by the Bavarian state. Mr Bablok’s bees collected the GM maize pollen for food (maize is only wind pollinated; insects play no role in maize fertilisation).

 

The judgment means that GM companies must have GM crop marketing licenses that cover sale of honey as food (under Directive 2001/18 and Regulation 1829/2003). The European Commission had previously refused to accept that honey contaminated with GM pollen should carry GM labels, saying the pollen was unintentionally present, was not an ingredient of the final product and was only present in small amounts. EU Health Commissioner Dalli has now confirmed Monsanto must reapply to acquire full authorisation for GM pollen to be in honey.

 

Beekeepers, already hard hit by a variety of bee diseases and disorders, are concerned they will now bear the costs of expensive GM testing and labelling, and that many will lose markets as honey is viewed as a healthy product and their customers will not buy if GM-labelled products. 

 

Commissioner Dali has also said “adequate separation distances” are the key for beekeepers and honey production. As honey bees are known to fly long distances to collect pollen, meaningful coexistence based separation distances would seem to be impossible. Governments will ultimately have to choose between pollination services and honey sales or GM crops.