Public Policy and Farm-level Strategies for Coexistence in Germany – A Case Study of Bt-maize in Brandenburg
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The regulatory framework for growing
GM crops in Germany comprises quite liberal ex-ante
regulations with very strict ex-post liability rules to protect
other production forms from possible negative side
effects of transgenic plants. Regulation is assumed to
impose additional costs on farmers who intend to plant
Bt-maize. This paper investigates the significance of
these costs and the possibility of minimizing them by
farm-level strategies such as coordination and cooperation
between the Bt-maize growing farmer and his
neighbours. A case study investigating the behaviour of
Bt-maize growing farmers was carried out in the Oderbruch
region in the federal state of Brandenburg, Germany.
This region is leading in Bt-maize cultivation in
Germany and has a high incidence of the European
Corn Borer (Ostrinia nubilalis Hübner). The interviews
revealed that additional costs due to ex-ante regulation
and ex-post liability were only of minor importance to
the Bt-maize growing farmers. All farms were large-scale
and could easily manage the construction of buffer
zones within their own fields and deliberately avoided
the planting of Bt-maize close to their neighbours. Thus
advanced inter-farm coordination and cooperation was
not necessary to achieve coexistence. However, the fact
that Bt-maize was only grown on large-scale farms indicates
a significant threshold effect due to the regulatory
framework in Germany likely to prevent small-scale
farms from planting Bt-maize unless innovative farm-level
strategies of coexistence will be developed.