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January 2000

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Contents

Introduction /Contents

Research, Development and Commercialisation

Growing, Harvesting and Distribution

From Port to Plate

Other Organisations

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Throughout the supply chain
There are certain services that all companies require. Therefore, for every company in the supply chain there will be: bank, insurance company, accountant, lawyer, recruitment agency, equipment / vehicles supplier etc

FSA - Food Standards Agency
Due to be launched in April 2000, this QUANGO will advise government ministers on food safety and standards. It will consist of ACNFP, Food Advisory Committee (FAC) and the proposed Advisory Committee on Animal Feed (ACAF). http://www.maff.gov.uk/food/fsa.htm

EC - European Commission.
All British government regulations have to comply with European Union (EU) legislation. For example, all deliberate releases in the UK have to comply with EU directive (90/220). The European Commission is advised by advisory bodies such as the scientific committee for food. A lot of legislation is initiated in Europe, especially in biotech. The business-friendly EC is the most powerful part of the EU bureaucracy, much more than the elected European Members of Parliament.

CODEX Alimentarius Commission.
Commission of the UN bodies Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and World Health Organisation (WHO). Publishes Codex Alimentarius, a set of guidelines designed to harmonise food standards and regulations internationally. According to Codex, these are designed to protect consumer health. In reality CODEX is stuffed full of industry representatives, and has very few public interest delegates.

WTO - World Trade Organisation
The Geneva-based international body responsible for enforcing the 'free' trade agenda. Countries agree successive relaxation of their regulations and trade barriers through 'rounds' of negotiation. Any country then has the right (often at the request of transnational companies) to challenge another for having policies or laws which are seen as 'barriers to trade'. These disputes are settled behind closed doors, by panels of corporate lawyers and ex-businessmen, and enforceable by trade sanctions. A WTO ruling found illegal the European Union's ban on milk from cows treated with Monsanto's bovine growth hormone BST, despite concerns about its unpredictable affects on human health. As a result the EU has had to pay compensation to Monsanto for its loss of earnings. Many thought the USA would also use the WTO to force Europe to accept GM crops; however at the ministerial meeting of the WTO in Seattle in late 1999, countries failed to agree an agenda for negotiations on international biotech deregulation. It is now likely the international regulations concerning agricultural GMOs will be agreed through the Biosafety Protocol in January 2000. Some campaigners hope this could be a decisive piece of international public interest regulation; however the previous round of talks on the Protocol in Colombia was blocked by the GMO-exporting countries, and there is some risk that an agreement might be made which follows their agenda. Less directly, the WTO has been developing regulations on trade-related intellectual property rights (TRIPs), which govern companies ownership over patents, technologies and species. These discussions are moving forward post-Seattle, but without any decision-making power. www.foe.co.uk/realfood/foodbiolink/brief/biosafetybref.htm

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