Public Morals Proposed as a Grounds to Ban GMOs

Public morals, public order, "social policy objectives," and "historical heritage" are some of the reasons the European Commission has proposed as grounds for a national ban of genetically modified crops. The plan presented by John Dalli, the European commissioner for health and consumer policy, is to give governments greater leeway to ban GM crop cultivation for factors other than health or environmental grounds. The legal service of the Council of Ministers criticized the proposal as contrary to World Trade Organization (WTO) rules and the EU's own single market. More information is available from Jennifer Rankin, Growing GM crops 'could pose a threat to public order,' EuropeanVoice.com (Feb. 3, 2011).

International European Food and Feed Law Conference

5th International European Food and                      Feed Law Conference                     Regulation of Innovations                     6/7 October 2011 · Logenhaus, Berlin
		This year's EFFL Conference has been scheduled for Thursday and Friday, 6 and 7 October 2011, at the Logenhaus in Berlin. The Regulation of Innovation is the theme of the agenda and will include experts from institutions, sciences, the industry and private legal practice to give insight into the following aspects of this issue: • The new regulation on novel food • Nanotechnology in food and feed • Challenges of the common authorization procedure • Risk assessment of innovations • Specific labelling requirements – an innovation killer? An early bird discount of 10 % is available for registration by 30 June. For more information please visit www.lexxion.eu/conferences.