A muddle over Romania’s genetically modified (GM) soy crops and its January accession to the EU will leave everyone, except perhaps the environmental lobby, a little poorer. Failure by the Romanian government during its EU membership talks to get approval to cultivate GM soy means that Romanian farmers who invested heavily in this crop stand to lose everything, Romania will give up the head-start it had in Europe in growing the crop, and Europe will be forced to continue importing the €1.6bn worth of GM soy for human and animal feed it needs each year from growers outside the EU, such as the US, Argentina and Brazil.