NEWS: Working group supports genetic manipulation of grain crops
HELSINGIN SANOMAT
A working group examining options in Finnish agricultural policy says that Finland needs to start producing genetically modified crop plants. The working group, headed by top Finance Ministry official Raimo Sailas, submitted its final report on Thursday to Minister of Agriculture Juha Korkeaoja (Centre).
Sailas said that the working group takes a positive view of technology and biotechnology. He says that new methods are needed to keep Finnish agriculture competitive.
The working group favours genetically-modified plants because gene technology is seen to offer new, more productive strains of agricultural plants for food production.
In the group’s view, without gene technology, the European Union and Finland will be overtaken by the United States, China, and Brazil in agricultural productivity.
"Gene technology is used to find researched, productive agricultural plants to balance out the disadvantages caused by northern natural conditions", the report states.
The view is at odds with present European Union policy, which opposes genetically modified foods. In the view of the working group, the risk with the EU’s attitude is that the question could become politicised, resulting in decisions that are not based on objective information.
The basic concern of the working group is competitiveness in agriculture. "The position of the food industry hangs in the balance if raw materials from domestic sources are not made available at competitive prices", Sailas says.
The working group would boost competitiveness by raising efficiency in agricultural production. "Productivity has not improved in the 21st century. On the contrary, it has actually declined on farms where grain is produced", the report states.
To improve productivity, the working group wants larger farms. To increase the size of farms, the group proposes that inheritance tax should not be collected when a family farm is handed down from one generation to the next. In addition, the law on leasing land is to be changed so that long-term leasing of land is made possible.
Growth in the size of farms will mean that the number of farmers will deline. Now there are about 70,000 active farming families.
Agriculture Minister Korkeaoja welcomed the working group’s proposals as fairly realistic.
Michael Hornborg, chairman of the Finnish Union of Agricultural Producers and Forest Owners, said that the report is good, although he finds a few shortcomings. For instance, he feels that the idea that basic agricultural subsidies would ever be distributed equally on a per hectare basis throughout the EU is wishful thinking.
Currently, for instance, French farmers get more subsidies per hectare than Finnish farmers do, while on the other hand, Finnish farmers get more support than farmers in Estonia. The differences stem from the fact that the basic supports are compensation for lower producer prices.
In France, crop yields are higher than in Finland, so lower prices lead to larger declines in income. Therefore, when producer prices go down, the loss of income is greater for farms in France than those in Finland. This is why French farmers collect more subsidies than those in Finland. "Finland produces one per cent of the foods in all of the EU. We do not have the power to influence such a great change in policy", Hornborg says.
Hornborg disagrees with the working group on the issue of genetic modification. He says that not having GM crops could be beneficial for Finland.
"If one of these crops were to be harmful for consumers in some way, who would be responsible? These kinds of questions remain open, for which reason I would not wave the flag on behalf of genetic modification", the farmers’ union leader says.
