Environmental and economic issues in GM crop and food production

Nowadays quality control is essential in the food industry, and efficient quality assurance has become increasingly important. Instrumentation and food safety practices are of central importance, with particular emphasis on very high sanitary and hygienic operating standards. In this context, labelling can help consumers take up their political responsibility. As citizens, consumers have certain sensible cares that can reasonable influence the market. The current EU legislation for genetically modified organisms (GMOs) regulates issues concerning environmental aspects and food as well as feed safety, procedures for commercialisation and labelling provisions. At present, only a limited number of certified reference materials are commercially available and there is no reference material accessible for GMOs that are not authorised in the EU. For the biotech detractors, safety, and environmental concerns far outweigh the importance in improved food quality, increased food production, and enhanced agriculture brought about by GM techniques. On the other hand, on the basis of a comprehensive literature research it is assumed that a relationship exists between production quality and control sistem allowing a deveolpment scenario including also plant biotechologies. Nevertheless the cultivation of crop plants sometimes guides to such side effects as soil erosion, contamination by pesticide residues, gene transfer through crossbreeding or loss of natural species due to the higher competitiveness of invasive cultivated crops. Whether or not such effects can occur depends largely on certain traits inherent to the plants: reproduction behaviour, various resistance factors and different requirements concerning soil and climate. The EU considers separate regulation to be necessary because, through genetic engineering, fundamentally new traits can be introduced, although an open behaviour in showed towards this new scientific field.