SLOVENIA BIOTECH: EMBASSY HOSTS FARMER TO FARMER

UNCLAS LJUBLJANA 000577

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EUR/NCE, EB/TPP/ABT, EUR/ERA
DEPT PLEASE PASS TO USTR (ERRION)
VIENNA PLEASE PASS TO FAS (GRAY AND HANSON)
FAS PLEASE PASS TO OA (SIMMONS AND JONES)

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: EAGR ECON ETRD SI
SUBJECT: SLOVENIA BIOTECH: EMBASSY HOSTS FARMER TO FARMER
ROUNDTABLE

REF: A. LJUBLJANA 141


B. (05) LJUBLJANA 512


1. Summary. On September 5, 2006 Embassy Ljubljana and FAS
Vienna rounded out a year-long effort to create an open,
science-based dialogue on agricultural co-existence in
Slovenia. Our aim has been to help shape new legislation to
reflect a fair and balanced approach to a sometimes emotional
issue in Slovenia. Speakers at the event, which took place
in Slovenia's second city, Maribor, were Fred Yoder and Bob
Fiddeman. Yoder is an American farmer of both conventional
and biotech crops and former president of the National
Corngrowers Association, and Fiddeman is a British farmer who
took part in biotech planting trials in Britain and who has
served on the biotech negotiating team for the National
Farmers Union of England and Wales. Both farmers made the
case for an open agriculture regime that accommodates
organic, conventional and biotech crops. They also stressed
the importance of communication between neighboring farmers
as the key to successful co-existence. The turnout on the
Slovenian side was smaller than hoped for due to fine weather
and an earlier than expected harvesting season. Nonetheless,
key decision makers, including the president of the farmers
union, the Ministry of Agriculture drafters of the
legislation, press, and representatives of large and small
agricultural enterprises, were in the room. The timing of
this event was important as the comment period on the newly
drafted legislation closes on September 12. End Summary.

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Completing the Dialogue
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2. Over the course of the last 12 months and with generous
support from EB/TPP/ABT, USDA Foreign Agriculture Service,
and valuable assistance from IIP and FAS Vienna, Embassy
Ljubljana was able to meet its goals of opening a national
dialogue on agricultural co-existence and ensuring that those
involved had available to them all the latest scientific
information on organic, conventional and biotech farming. In
addition to our latest farmer-to-farmer conference, Embassy
Ljubljana also produced, in August, a pamphlet in Slovenian
explaining the facts and discussing myths and realities of
biotech agriculture.


3. The September 5 event was held in the Slovenian city of
Maribor, close to the Austrian border and deep into Slovenian
farming country. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on
your point of view) after weeks of rain, Slovenia was in the
midst of a stretch of fine weather which kept most farmers in
their fields and not a hotel conference room. Nonetheless,
we are certain that we reached critical players in the
co-existence dialogue in Slovenia. In addition to opening
remarks by Pol/Econ Chief, Roman Zveglic, president of the
Union of Slovenian Farmers, gave opening comments in which he
stressed the importance of keeping an open mind on the issue
of co-existence and the unique opportunity at hand to talk
with farmers from the US and Europe about their experiences.
Also attending were the Ministry of Agriculture drafters of
the co-existence legislation, press, and representatives of
both large and small agricultural enterprises.

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Key is Communication
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4. Both Yoder and Fiddeman stressed the importance of
communication between neighbors in ensuring success of
co-existence. To the comment that Slovenian farms were too
small to support co-existence, both replied that from what
they had seen of farms just in their drive from the airport,
Slovenia seemed particularly well suited to co-existence
because of the many natural barriers that already exist
between farms. Also interesting to the audience was Yoder's
description of how co-existence worked in the US. He
explained that as with all farming, communication between
neighbors was key to the integrity of any crop be it
conventional, organic or biotech. And, perhaps surprising to
the audience, was his comment that in the U.S. legislation
was not necessary to ensure co-existence. Another point of
interest, and apparent agreement with Slovenia farmers, was
that given the proven safety of certain biotech crops, and
the increasing demand for organic food, along with a

continuing preference for conventional crops in many cases,
profit margins are the deciding factor for what he, and most
other farmers, choose to grow.


5. The participation of Bob Fiddeman was paid for by the
European Association for Bioindustries (ABE) and was
important for this event because he represented a positive,
European view of co-existence. His presence added legitimacy
to the views expressed by the American farmer, demonstrating
this was not simply a political policy advocated by the U.S.
Government, but a practical issue which would impact farmers'
long-term survival.

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Positive Impact
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6. Comment: The timing of this event was serendipitous as
it coincided with the comment period on the draft
co-existence legislation - something we could not have
predicted when originally planning the roundtable. Despite a
smaller than hoped for turnout of farmers, we are confident
that we reached all the key audiences on the co-existence
debate, and we believe that our year-long effort to engage,
educate and inform on the benefits of co-existence will
reflect positively in Slovenia's co-existence legislation.

ROBERTSON