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Biotech / Medical : Monsanto Co. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Anthony Wong who wrote (994)	1/27/1999 9:31:00 AM
From: Anthony Wong	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2539

European Biotech Companies Risk Losing Ground on Genetic Foods Bloomberg News January 27, 1999, 7:15 a.m. ET European Biotech Companies Risk Losing Ground on Genetic Foods Cambridge, England Jan. 27 (Bloomberg) -- European biotechnology companies are in danger of losing markets to U.S. competitors as governments and consumers prove reluctant to accept genetically modified food crops. While U.S. regulators have approved more than 30 genetically modified seeds since 1990, commercial production of such crops in Europe could be as far as five years in the future, industry experts said. Getting approval ''is so much easier to do in the U.S.,'' said Rob Wilde, research and development manager for Zeneca U.K., a division of Zeneca Group Plc, told the 3rd European Potato Industry Conference in Cambridge. ''Europe will be left behind if it's not careful.'' Many European consumer and environmental groups oppose genetically modified plants, saying they could damage health and the environment. Some EU governments have restrictions on certain modified crops. Opposition to biotechnology could cause EU companies to lose investment in new crops, production and processing technology, Wilde said. Current technology is unlikely to yield adequate food supplies for a growing world population, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization said last week. The global population is forecast to rise by 7.5 billion people by 2020, including 6.3 billion in developing countries, the FAO said. Without new strains of staple crops there won't be enough food supplies to feed that population, it said. --Anne Brockhoff in Cambridge through the London newsroom (44)