BASF CEO Says Support GM or Leave EU

Filed in archive Food and Agriculture on June 2, 2006

EU Politix conducted an interview with BASF CEO Dr. Hans Kast about "green biotechnology", the application of biotechnology in agriculture, and its history and future prospects in EU. At one point, he said that if there are individual EU countries which do not want to embrace genetically modified (GM) crops, they should leave the union. Here is an excerpt, tackling some of the more controversial points on the cultivation and development of biotech crops in the European Union:

Question: But are you not disrespecting European public opinion by forcing GM on citizens?

Hans Kast: Where is the basis for that argument? You assume the majority are against GM. If that were the case the EU should never have approved this legislation. We now have a situation where we are free to market these products.

Question: But surveys suggest consumers do not want it.

Hans Kast: That is a problem that industry always faces. If consumers do not like it they will not buy it. Governments decide to police the consumer instead of letting them decide on their own. We cannot accept a situation whereby these products are proved safe and then countries say we do not want this product.

Question: Why are people not free to say that?

Hans Kast: Because then they should not be in the EU - they should get out of the EU and say we want to be on our own. If 25 countries agree to give a certain authority to Brussels and we entrust them to take a decision and they agree they want these new technologies to enter into the EU, then it should not be up to countries to prevent that. There should not be an authority in between, so that people with a bad gut feeling are not able to simply block a process.

Note that BASF recently acquired CropDesign, a biotech firm specializing in enhancing crops to improve yield, drought tolerance and nutrient use efficiency.

Check out EU Politix to read the entire interview.