Economic Loss Caused by Genetically Modified Organisms / Tort and Insurance Law Bd.24 (PDF)

European farmers should have a free choice between growing conventional or organic crops or cultivating genetically modified plants instead, to the extent permissible. While this goal can hardly be disputed, it is subject to a heated - bate throughout Europe whether such co-existence can ever be truly achieved in practice, as agriculture by its nature cannot be performed in completely isolated zones which guarantee the complete segregation of GM and non-GM production. Despite all due efforts, traditional agricultural products, particul- ly if grown in the vicinity of GM fields, may therefore still turn out to contain detectable traces of GMOs. To the extent primary ways to secure the separation between the various farming practices such as buffer zones or the like fail, secondary tools may be necessary in order to reestablish the balance of interests between the prod- ers. This is where tort law and alternative redress schemes come into play. As will be seen, European jurisdictions differ quite substantially when it comes to responding to the economic loss incurred by one farmer due to the p- missible pursuit of a novel production technique applied by another. This book not only tries to present those different approaches country by country, but also offers a comparison of the existing regimes as well as reflections on how such diversity may or may not need to be addressed on a European legislative level.