REVIEW&STATISTICS
Alena Velichko
ABSURD SUSPICIONS Investigation cooperation topic: with GMO Investigation subject:
COFFEE and TEA
Verdict suspicions of the international are community: groundless nly five countries are absolutely GMO-free zones: Austria, Venezuela, Greece, Poland, and Switzerland. This means that import of GMO-containing agricultural products into them is prohibited. Other countries allow such imports, but strongly recommend that GMO-containing products be labeled accordingly. The most common products which contain a modified genome are soya beans, corn, rapeseed, cotton, rice, and potatoes. They are imported into the CIS countries, but production of GM cultures within the CIS is prohibited. Although Russia is not a GMOfree zone, food products are tightly controlled, and the list of products checked for GMO content includes many other crops in addition to the six listed above. Most surprisingly, tea and coffee are on this list. There should be serious reasons for checking them for GMO presence, which surely must be known to: a) tea and coffee producing countries; and b) international tea and coffee associations and committees monitoring product quality. It was they who spoke up to protect tea and coffee. Dr. Monika Beutgen, Secretary General of the European Tea Committee, says no genetically modified tea has so far been registered in the course of EU monitoring. "However, from time to time we see certain misunderstanding connected with ‘development’ of new tea plants, which are more resistant to pesticides, droughts, and other hardships. Such misunderstanding is further incited by tea producers themselves as they use the term ’cloning1 of tea plants.’ As far as we know, this phrase is used to
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describe usual work processes, the resulting products of which may not be considered genetically modified in accordance with EU Regulation 1829/2003 on all genetically modified food and feed." According to this Regulation, all European companies shall underline it in their contracts that the tea they trade must not be genetically modified. Another piece of evidence against existence of genetically modified tea is that investing in research and development of such products is unprofitable. "Expenses on developing a genetically modified product are sure to exceed any profits thereon," Monika Beutgen says. Even if such research began, experts would immediately hear of it. Mr.Tim Bond, Chairman of the UK Tea Council Technology Commission, admits that, as far as they know, "no R&D institute undertook research in genetic engineering of tea plants." Bill Gorman, Executive Chairman of the Council, says research is under way to breed new drought-resistant plants by crossbreeding normal tea plants, which is different from genetic engineering. Mr. Michael Bunston, Chairman of the International Tea Committee, has not heard of genetically modified tea either: "The only explanation I can think of regarding the issue of tea and GMO is a somewhat unhappy use of the term ’cloning,’ which is at present actively employed in genetic engineering but used to mean vegetative propagation." Biswajit Bera, Director at the Tea Board of India, says no tea is produced from GM tea plants. He believes that tea as a health drink is
incompatible with GMO. John Wanjoko from the Tea Board of Kenya shares his point of view and strongly denies any use of GMO technologies, as well as pesticides, in tea industry. "We study in depth all issues related to tea, its quality, and land productivity. We do not need to develop GM tea as we do not have any serious problems with drought, pesticides, or other tea-specific issues. We do crossbreeding, but it has nothing in common with genetic engineering." The situation in the coffee industry is very much the same, but with a twist. Research to produce genetically modified coffee began in the mid-90-ies, and in 2005 a seminar took place in London where the results of such research were presented. "However, GM coffee is still in its development stages, and not a single gram of such coffee has entered the market," Martin Wattam, International Coffee Organisation expert, says. Summing up the experts' opinions, one can say they are unanimous that the customers' concerns are obviously groundless. They believe that the main piece of evidence – the word "cloning" – is but an unhappy term which tea specialists have long used to describe the development of new breeds and which has nothing to do with genetic engineering. The case of coffee, where research began many years ago but has so far yielded no results, shows that production of GM coffee is not at all a quick process, and at present it is a clear no-win in many respects. One would hope that the money spent on GMO certification of tea and coffee will be invested in tea and coffee industry development.
A clone in plant selection means any descendant of a single plant, produced by saplings, propagules, root tubers, bulbs, underground stems, and other parts. – Ed.
COFFEE&TEA INTERNATIONAL # 1/2010