The Costs of GM and Non-GM Co-existence in Processed Food Systems – Demonstrated for the Cases of the German Supply Chains of Chocolate and Frozen Pizza

Author(s):  
Andreas Gabriel ◽  
Klaus Menrad

AbstractIn contrast to the increasing use of GM plants in agriculture worldwide, the acceptance of GM food is still low in the European Union. If GM food products were introduced in the EU, the German food industry would be confronted with increased efforts to separate GM and non-GM processing lines and it would have to perform compulsory quality management. This paper analyses the costs of co-existence for producers of frozen pizza and chocolate in Germany. In order to provide an idea of the general magnitude of these costs, an adaptive calculation model was developed, supported by qualitative information from expert interviews for both sectors. The case studies reveal that the possibilities of the companies are quite different in terms of size, infrastructure, and available resources to operate parallel production. Companies which already have sufficient existing facilities to run separated production lines might have the opportunity for specialisation and could manage a possible emerging GM market situation.

2013 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 5-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ewelina Żmijewska ◽  
Dariusz Teper ◽  
Anna Linkiewicz ◽  
Sławomir Sowa

Abstract Maize can be a valuable source of pollen when plants attractive for bees are not available. Honeybees can forage from conventional maize as well as from genetically modified (GM ) maize. The Court of Justice of the European Union (EU ) ruled that pollen in honey must be treated as a food ingredient and therefore falls within the scope of Regulation 1829/2003/EC on GM food and feed and requires authorization. GM pollen unauthorized in the EU cannot be present in honey at any level, and honey must be labelled if it contains more than 0.9% of pollen from authorized GM plants in relation to total pollen content. However, currently available analytical methods allow only for estimation of GM pollen quantity in honey. Therefore, Directive 2001/110/EC related to honey needs to be amended so that pollen can be regarded as a natural constituent of honey. Because the EU is a big honey importer, validated and harmonized detection methods are necessary for the control of GM pollen in honey.


2016 ◽  
Vol 46 (5) ◽  
pp. 620-627
Author(s):  
Roberto Defez

Purpose The debate around the use and study of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) is so complex that frequently people miss that the outcome of some political/social/economic decisions are taken in such a way that the legal/agricultural/medical coherence is lost. The purpose of this text is to underline the contradictions in the European approach to GMOs, when for the past 20 years the European Union (EU) has been using and importing GMOs but rejecting its study or cultivation. Design/methodology/approach The approach follows the distance among public declarations against GMOs from most of the political representatives, followed by decision on our health, nutrition and economic development going exactly in the opposite direction. The arrival of the new genome-edited plants cannot solve all requirements, as in many cases an entire new function should be added and, at present, this will be again a GMO irrespective to the technique used to add a new gene. The delay in taking these decisions are now posing a hazard on the cultural and economic development of the EU. Findings The laws (directives) on GMOs in the EU are far too restrictive and suffer from an over-regulation that prevent any attempt to come to a science-based approach on genetically modified (GM) plants. The basis for the definition and the restrictions is on the technology and not on the final product. However, on the other hand, the GMOs are the only product where the safety analysis is on the final product (which is not the case for organics productions). The paradox is that all restrictions are concentrated on GM plants to be cultivated in Europe, as if the main hazard would be on the environmental impact of local cultivation. Meanwhile, the EU has no concern if the same environmental damage happens abroad and EU is the final user of the technology as 68 different GMOs are imported and used even for human consumption in Europe. Originality/value Fighting against the EU over-regulation would appear to be a position supporting multinational seed companies (none of them based in the EU), described as polluters. The proposed approach is the opposite, asking for a more restrictive regulation to show to the consumers that: most local EU high quality food products are derived from GM-fed animals; GM cotton is potentially far more risky than any GM food; and reducing GM plants cultivated in Europe increases the pesticide sold by chemical companies (mostly based in the EU).


2008 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Lieberman ◽  
Tim Gray

The World Trade Organization (WTO) recently ruled on the case brought by the US, Canada and Argentina against the moratorium imposed by the European Union (EU) on imports of genetically-modified (GM) food and crops. Although the WTO's ruling has been greeted by the complainant countries as a victory, it found in their favor on only one narrow technical procedural issue, and it rejected more substantive challenges to the EU moratorium. In this article, we analyze the WTO report and explain the issues at stake, focusing particularly on the question of why the USA chose the WTO as the forum for its challenge to the EU moratorium, and whether it was wise to do so. Has the USA achieved its aims through the trade-specific WTO, or should it have taken its challenge to the more hostile, but environment-specific forum of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety? Alternatively, should the USA have refrained from mounting an official international challenge at all?


2005 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
LEE ANN JACKSON ◽  
KYM ANDERSON

Over the past decade, the United States (US) and the European Union (EU) have implemented widely divergent regulatory systems to govern the production and consumption of genetically modified (GM) agricultural crops. In the US, many GM varieties have been commercially produced and marketed, while in the EU few varieties have been approved: a de facto moratorium limited EU production, import and domestic sale of most GM crops from late 1998 to April 2004, and since then strict labelling regulations and a slow approval process are having a similar effect. The EU policies have substantially altered trade flows and led in September 2003 to the WTO establishing a WTO Dispute Settlement panel to test the legality of European policy towards imports of GM foods. This paper seeks to better understand the economic forces behind the different regulatory approaches of the US and the EU. It uses a model of the global economy (GTAP) to examine empirically how GM biotechnology adoption would affect the economic welfare of both adopting and non-adopting countries in the absence of alternative policy responses to this technology, and in their presence. These results go beyond earlier empirical studies to indicate effects on real incomes of farm households, and suggest the EU moratorium on GM imports helps EU farmers even though it requires them to forego the productivity boost they could receive from the new GM biotechnology.


2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (8) ◽  
pp. 80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ewa Rollnik-Sadowska

In an era of aging of the European Union population, it is crucial to take care of human resources in various spheres of their life. The potential of young people is particularly important, as their economic activity creates the basis of maintaining the European welfare state model. However, the labour market situation of young people is difficult. Moreover, the phenomena, which have recently attracted increasing attention, are remaining for young people without employment, education or training (NEET). The occurrence of NEET's resources is harmful at micro level - due to pauperization of European households as well as for the whole economy due to insufficient usage of human resources. The paper aim is to compare how the situation of young people differs in the European Union labour markets.The paper was based on both the desk-research of literature as well as the analysis of selected economic indicators of young people (aged 15-29 years). The indicator analysis was made through the usage of cluster analysis (Ward's method and k-means method). The data was gathered from the databases of Eurostat. The selected indicators determine the labour market situation of young people in the EU countries and they are derived from two years – 2006 and 2014.Ward's and k-means methods allowed for dividing the EU countries into three groups. It occurred that the groups in 2006 have a completely different composition of countries than in 2014, which was mainly determined by crisis influences on the labour markets as well as directions of conducted reforms. Additionally, the k-means method allowed for comparison of selected groups on the basis of chosen variables and determination of countries with the best and the worst situation of young people.


2020 ◽  
pp. 125-144
Author(s):  
Monika Szkarłat

The European Union can be described as a particular hybrid integration structure that combines features of a state and intergovernmental organisation. Its institutional framework, legal system and division of competences are examples of a supranational organisation or a transnational decision-making system. The decision-making process is an outcome of network interactions between multiple actors, whose relations are non-hierarchically ordered. Genetically modified organisms (GMO) as an example of modern biotechnology application is a highly polarising subject in the EU, as well as globally. Thus, the policy towards GMO is an exemplification of legal and political hybridity of the EU. The analysis of the EU’s legal and political hybridity will be narrowed down to the GM plants case and methodologically organised around the concept of decision-making analysis that is composed of five categories: decision-making situation, actors, decision-making process, decision, implementation of the decision


Author(s):  
Oksana Protsevyat

The article analyzes the current state and tendencies of development of industrial goods export from Lviv кegion to the countries of the European Union. The paper reveals that in the period 2000–2018 there was a growing tendency of the volume of industrial production, which in 2018 increased 27.6 times compared to the beginning of the analyzed period. The situation on the foreign market was also found to be positive: in 2018 the volume of export of manufactured goods increased more than 30 times compared to 2000. The peculiarities of export of goods from Lviv Region are investigated. The share of exports of goods to EU countries in the total export of goods from the Lviv Region is estimated to be significantly high and ranging from 64.2 per cent in 2010 to 78.6 per cent in 2018. A number of the largest trading partners among the European Union countries to which industrial goods from Lviv Region are exported are highlighted. The largest export of industrial goods from the EU countries was sent to Denmark, Italy, Germany, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The dynamics and structure of export of industrial goods from Lviv Region to the countries of the European Union are presented. It is estimated that, in terms of the structure of export of industrial goods, a significant share is occupied by the export of wood and its products (11.0–11.9 per cent), textile materials and textile products (12.2–16.4 per cent), machinery, equipment and mechanisms, electrical equipment (30.6-35.1 per cent) and various industrial goods (13.7-16.5 per cent). The main reasons for the decline in exports of industrial goods from Lviv Region to the EU countries in 2018 are highlighted. In particular, such reasons are: decrease in production of some industrial products in the region, dependence on the level of world prices for these goods and on the market situation of industrial goods in EU countries, increase in export of manufactured goods to other countries of the world.


Author(s):  
Pascal L. Ghazalian

This paper examines the implications of the European Union (EU) regional trade preferences for processed food trade between Greece and its EU partners, and between Greece and non-EU countries. The empirical analysis relies on the gravity model, and uses different estimation techniques. The results show that the EU regional trade preferences led to substantial increases in processed food trade between Greece and its EU partners, emphasizing trade creation effects. The magnitudes of these increases are higher than the intra-EU average, and are more pronounced for Greece's imports than for Greece's exports. The results also indicate that the EU regional trade preferences brought about decreases in processed food trade between Greece and non-EU countries, implying trade diversion effects. The Greek food processing industry could benefit from competitiveness-promoting strategies (e.g., upgrading innovation activities, marketing and distribution channels, and production efficiency) to expand exports to the EU market and to counter import competition in the domestic market. JEL Classification: F13, F14, F15.


2017 ◽  
pp. 114-127
Author(s):  
M. Klinova ◽  
E. Sidorova

The article deals with economic sanctions and their impact on the state and prospects of the neighboring partner economies - the European Union (EU) and Russia. It provides comparisons of current data with that of the year 2013 (before sanctions) to demonstrate the impact of sanctions on both sides. Despite the fact that Russia remains the EU’s key partner, it came out of the first three partners of the EU. The current economic recession is caused by different reasons, not only by sanctions. Both the EU and Russia have internal problems, which the sanctions confrontation only exacerbates. The article emphasizes the need for a speedy restoration of cooperation.


2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-56
Author(s):  
Milan Palat

Bu çalışmanın amacı, Türkiye’den göç ve Almanya’nın ekonomik göstergeleri arasındaki ilişkiyi, nicel metot yöntemleri kullanarak değerlendirmektir. Türkiye’nin belirsiz Avrupa ile bütünleşme beklentilerine rağmen  Avrupa Birliğinin köklü üyelerine olan Türk göçü devam edecektir. Çok sayıda Türk azınlığın yaşadığı ve hayat standartlarının yüksek olduğu Almanya, Hollanda ve Fransa’ya  büyük bir göç dalgası gerçekleşebilir. Çalışmanın istatistiksel bölümünün sonuçları, toplam göç ile gayri safi yurtiçi hasıladaki büyüme arasında pozitif, toplam göç ile işsizlik arasındaki negatif ve tahmin edilen bağımlılık yönüyle uygunluk içerisinde olan toplam göç ile aylık gelir arasında pozitif ilişki olduğunu göstermektedir. Türkiye’den göçle işsizlik arasındaki ilişki, toplam göçle olan ilişkiden daha düşüktür. Ancak, Almanya’daki yabancı mevcudiyeti ile Türkiye’den göç arasında bir ilişki bulunmaktadır. Bu durum, var olan göçmen topluluğunun olduğu yerin, yeni göçmenleri, köken bağlarına dayanarak cezbetmesi ve maliyet- riskler sebebiyle göçün düşük seviye de olduğuna dayanan kuramsal Ağ teorisi görüşü ile uygunluk göstermektedir. Göç ve işsizlik arasında gözlenen ilişki, Almanya’ya göçün  işgücü piyasasında talepte meydana gelen değişime karşılık geldiği gerçeğini göstermektedir. İşsizlik ve göç olgularının meydana geliş zamanlarında bir aralık  olsa bile  göç, Alman emek pazarında var olan dengesizliklerin azaltılmasında nispeten etkili bir mekanizma gibi görünmektedir. ENGLISH TITLE & ABSTRACTTurkish Immigration to the European Union: The Case of GermanyThe objective of the paper was to evaluate the relationships between immigration from Turkey and economic indicators in Germany using  quantitative methods. Despite Turkey’s unclear European integration prospects, it is predicted that Turkish immigration to  established member countries of the EU will continue. The strongest waves may flow to Germany, Netherlands or France, where numerous Turkish minorities are already present and where the living standards are high. Results from the statistical analysis of the paper showed a positive correlation between immigration total and the growth of gross domestic product. On the other hand, a negative correlation of immigration total and unemployment was found and a positive relationship between immigration total and income total which is in agreement with the expected dependency direction. With regards to  immigration from Turkey it is less correlated to unemployment than immigration total. But there is a correlation between immigration from Turkey and the stock of foreigners in Germany This is in accordance with the theoretical concept of network theory where an existing community of migrants keeps attracting new migrants because the costs and risks associated with migration are lower, thanks to established linkages to the country of origin. The observed correlation of migration and unemployment points to the fact that immigration to Germany responds to changes in demand in the labour market. Even though a time lag may occur in the case of unemployment and immigration, migration appears to be a relatively effective mechanism to offset existing imbalances in German labour markets. 


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