Agriculture: European project to assess impact of GMOs concluded

The European project AMIGA has defined the tools to assess the environmental and economic impact of GMO cultivations in Europe. ENEA has coordinated this scientific project involving 22 international partners.

New food safety standards and cost-benefit evaluation models of GMO cultivations were the objectives of the European project AMIGA (Assessing and Monitoring the Impacts of Genetically modified plants on Agro-ecosytems), coordinated by ENEA. In over four years of field experiments and laboratory tests ENEA, together with 22 scientific partners, assessed and monitored the impact of GM potato and maize cultivations on agriculture and ecosystems.

In addition to coordinating the research activities ENEA studied some insects species typical of the Mediterranean ecosystems in order to evaluate possible environmental risks. “All this with a view to protecting european consumers and the environment -Salvatore Arpaia, ENEA responsible for the project AMIGA, pointed out-Summer School for young students, researchers and Ph.D students on GMOs and their impact on agriculture.”

Global acreage of GM crops is of 185 million hectares- mostly maize, soybean, rapeseed and beet- equal to 10% of the world’s arable land. The USA rank first with 70 million hectares, followed by Brasil, Argentina, India and Canada.  Europe allows the cultivation of only one GM crop (MON810), mostly grown in Spain (137thousand hectares over a total of 150thousand in Europe) but recently the UE Commission has given the green light to importing 19 GMOs (three varieties of maize, five of soybean, two of rapeseed, seven of cotton and two of ornamental flowers).

For more information please contact:

Salvatore Arpaia, ENEA Trisaia Center, salvatore.arpaia@enea.it

Link to the project: http://www.amigaproject.eu/