Dr Hans Kast

Question: What is biotechnology?

Hans Kast: Biotechnology has different areas of application. The first is “red biotechnology” – this is the health care area. GM is not only about plants - it is also about health care. Take human insulin - that is a GM product. Cells incorporating pieces of the human genome are used to tell the cell how to make human insulin – so GM is not limited just to crop plants. We have more that 120 medicines that are approved for use and sale.
The second area is “green biotechnology” – agriculture and the third is “white biotechnology” and this is the area of industrial application.
But policy makers cannot pick and choose between parts of biotech. They cannot reject agriculture but support medicine because blocking one will hinder another.

Question: On “green biotechnology”, what have twenty years of research achieved?

Hans Kast: Last year the first generation of biotech crops were grown on 90 million hectares of land world wide. Herbicide tolerance and insect resistance are the first two goals achieved by plant bio-tech. But like many emerging technologies after the first generation the second generation follows – and in plant biotech, the second generation will be far bigger and will go into completely different areas.
The first two product lines were beneficial for the farmer. In the second and third generation we will see crops where you have improved the nutritional content - crops that are used to produce certain healthy ingredients.

Question: On the co-existence question, the Austrians have called for further scientific investigation. Do you accept that there could be areas of GM technology that need further scientific assessment?

Hans Kast: If you consider the approval process for these products, they face years of trials in the greenhouse and then later in the field. The competent authorities then decide if there is a safety issue with the said crop. If there was a safety issue, you would not be allowed to plant the crop.
The questions around coexistence are questions of consumer choice. Whether we are talking about a GM crop or a conventional crop, both are now considered safe. So it is only a question of whether you want to offer the consumer choice.

Question: Where is the choice for those organic farmers whose fields may be contaminated by GM seeds?

Hans Kast: If an organic farmer wants to grow organic, he can. He simply needs to take care that he has sufficient distance from the other fields.

Question: But has experience in the US shown that it is not as simple as that?

Hans Kast: I am not aware of any cases of organic farmers who said they have had their fields contaminated. You go to the US and you can buy organic or GM.
In practise only BT maize has been approved for cultivation in Europe and the amount of organically farmed maize is minimal. So the risk of cross contamination is relatively small because there is no real market for organically grown maize. Of course this is different for vegetables or produce where there is a stronger organic market - but there are no GM crops approved for cultivation so far in this area.

Question: What do you think of the EU approval process?

Hans Kast: This process of how the EU legislates has nothing to do with GM and we need to keep this in mind. We do need to have a final authority in Europe - otherwise approval processes drag forever. For industry, having an approval process that runs on and on is simply not viable.
Before a product reaches its approval status, millions of euros will have been spent on it - and due to a lack of understanding in certain member states these products are being threatened.

Question: Do you fear that the EU is losing out competitively to the US because of its hesitancy over GM? Are the Lisbon agenda goals slipping away?

Hans Kast: There is definitely a risk that the EU will lose out competitively. If farmers in the Americas have better technology, they can out-compete European farmers. That is why the European farmers need to get themselves on a level playing field and embrace biotechnology.

Question: But are you not disrespecting European public opinion by forcing GM on citizens?

Hans Kast: Where is the basis for that argument? You assume the majority are against GM. If that were the case the EU should never have approved this legislation. We now have a situation where we are free to market these products.

Question: But surveys suggest consumers do not want it.

Hans Kast: That is a problem that industry always faces. If consumers do not like it they will not buy it. Governments decide to police the consumer instead of letting them decide on their own. We cannot accept a situation whereby these products are proved safe and then countries say we do not want this product.

Question: Why are people not free to say that?

Hans Kast: Because then they should not be in the EU - they should get out of the EU and say we want to be on our own. If 25 countries agree to give a certain authority to Brussels and we entrust them to take a decision and they agree they want these new technologies to enter into the EU, then it should not be up to countries to prevent that. There should not be an authority in between, so that people with a bad gut feeling are not able to simply block a process.

Question: Why could the people of Wales not say we are GM free? What happened to their choice?

Hans Kast: I have not heard that the people of Wales want to be GM free. Would Wales be allowed to say we don’t want to have cars?

Question: Your latest figures show biotech in Europe is flagging behind the US - Does this indicate that there is no taste for this technology here?

Hans Kast: The figures do not show the brightest picture, but that is the wrong conclusion. I believe there is a mismatch between EU ambitions and corporate ambitions and I blame the lack of political will for blocking GM products.
Europe is not attractive to investors and if investors do not come here then there will be no companies and no jobs. Why are investors not coming here? Because they see a high risk environment – because of the slow approval process in the EU. Investors do not like it and they see safer environments elsewhere.

Question: What do you expect from the EU’s mid-term review on biotech?

Hans Kast: I do not know what the outcome will be. But I think it is important that we set up benchmarks – we need to ask what we want to achieve and how and if there is a gap we need to ask why we have that gap.

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