Europe Behind on Agri Biotech?

Smells like politics:

Professor Dr Marc Van Montagu, Chairman International Plant Biotechnology Organisation (IPBO)[i] Gent University and president of the European Federation of Biotechnology, told journalists in Brussels recently that European farmers are lagging behind the rest of the world in terms of access to agricultural biotechnology.

..."Fighting the vicious circle of hunger and poverty is the most urgent task that faces our society, and will require a reformulation of current models of agriculture," he said. But he also believes that the technology has already demonstrated considerable benefits in Europe, despite systematic attempts to deny European farmers the right to use a technology widely used in the rest of the world.