Greens eat organic pears, Africa starves. (Forward Observer).(European Union ban on genetically modified crops hurts Africa)

What my colleagues Chistopher DeMuth and Steven Hayward have christened "romantic environmentalism"--the view that protecting the environment must override all other concerns--emerged as a big loser at the giant U.N. Earth Summit in Johannesburg during September. The winner was economic development.

After all, decades of academic research shows that clean air and water are byproducts of prosperous economies. In Johannesburg, poor countries said they wanted to get rich. To get there, they need cheap, abundant energy--not the windmills and solar cells the Europeans want to foist on them. Expensive, exotic energy sources are fine for Denmark and France, but not--at least now--for Mozambique and Bangladesh.

The conference was not a complete rout, though. While failing to achieve their romantic vision on energy, the Europeans managed to impose an unscientific perspective in another economic sphere--agriculture. Four years ago, Europe slapped a moratorium on any further approvals of genetically modified (G.M.) food products. Americans have been eating G.M. corn, potatoes, and soybeans since the mid 1990s with no adverse consequences. Europeans themselves have had no safety or health problems with the nine G.M. products approved between 1994 and 1998.

In fact, the European Commission's own environmental ministry has indicated it opposes the moratorium. Still, governments of individual European countries have decided to pander to the Greens, who share power in many shaky governing coalitions. As a result, genetically modified foods have been blocked in all of Europe.

Europeans led the agricultural revolutions of the past. Today, much of Europe wants to stop the clock on food progress. That's fine for them--Europe is rich--but their superstition badly hurts the world's poor.

Genetic techniques have sped the development of crops that are resistant to pests, that grow faster, that can tolerate bad soils, that don't require as much fertilizer. As a result, about 40 percent of America's corn crop and 70 percent of its soybeans now come from G.M. seeds. Sensible environmentalists like G.M. crops--because they help preserve land, reduce fertilizer use, and keep chemicals ...