What is the political climate surrounding GMOs?
Europe and the U.S. are engaged in a giant struggle over agricultural market domination. Some similarities exist between the strategies used by the two powers. For example, both maintain enormous subsidies for their agricultural sectors, which lower international prices for many agricultural commodities, thus reducing the competitiveness of products grown in the developing world. However, there are differences between European and American subsidy programs. The subsidies from the EU have a significant environmental component, while the U.S. subsidies prioritize supporting the largest actors. The U.S. does not consider organic agriculture while the EU values it highly, and the EU takes a cautious approach to GMOs, while the U.S. is a leading advocate of GMO products. The forum for this agricultural battle between the U.S. and the E.U. soon became the World Trade Organization (WTO). This happened when the U.S. claimed the E.U.’s cautious approach to GM foods represented a barrier to trad
