Original source: Campaingers accused the biotech industry on Tuesday of using misleading figures to mask declining cultivation of genetically modified (GM) crops in Europe.
Friends of the Earth said that the European industry had claimed that cultivation had risen by more than a fifth (21 per cent) in 2008, but that the figures did not include agricultural giant France which banned the EU’s only permitted GM crop last year.
According to the green group, the number of hectares of GM crops actually fell by 2 per cent last year, if figures for France were included.
It also claimed that the number had fallen every year since 2005, if figures for Romania, which had to drop GM soya cultivation on its accession to the EU, were counted.
A report by Friends of the Earth, before the annual publication of industry figures on global GM crop production, also claimed that the crops only benefited the biotech industry which profited from patents and seed sales.
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