"With the growth of what we call a green movement in Europe over the past 20years, there has been an increasing concern that we are causing unnecessaryharm to our environment," Gowen told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday.

"The move to organic food is part of this move towards having a lifestylethat is in harmony with the environment and that does not destroy thetraditions which we have inherited," he said. Organic food is more expensivethan conventional food because producers cannot use pesticides andartificial fertilisers, he said. Use of gene modification technology andirradiation procedures are also banned. "But many European consumers, and inincreasing numbers, are prepared to pay an additional premium to guaranteethey have a food of the purest and healthiest quality," he said.

Gowen said the percentage organic food represents in total food productionin Europe was still small but growing rapidly. "We have 100,000 farmers andfood processors who are producing organic foods in Europe. We have 2.5million hectares under organic cultivation, and this figure is growing allthe time as the demand for organic food increases," he said. Gowen was inTokyo to promote European organic foods at the international food exhibitionthis week where more than 2,300 companies from 67 countries participated.

Gowen said organic foods are becoming popular among Japanese consumers aswell with products such as organic wine, cheese, chocolates and olive oilnow available on the local market.

Gowen said the European Union does not agree with the US view that consumersshould accept foods derived from gene modification technology on the groundsno scientific evidence exists that GMOs are harmful to human health. "Ourview is that science is just not sufficient yet to reach a firm conclusion.We don't have enough long term evidence, so we should proceed extremelycautiously," he said.

-- (Reuters)