European consumers unite against GE

http://weblog.greenpeace.org/ge/archives/001506.html#001506

 Across Europe greenpeace volunteers and campaigners are keeping up the pressure on the GE food industry, letting them know that consumers don't want GE anywhere near their dinner tables. Today volunteers, representing citizens from the 25 nations of the European Union, made their feelings known by hanging banners in front of important monuments in Portugal, Poland, Germany, Austria, Italy, France, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Hungary, Luxembourg, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. View a slideshow of today's images.

Our volunteers posed with banners in various languages – all with the same message – NO GE FOOD. Today’s demonstrations all took part in places of social importance: In front of Prague Castle in the Czech Republic; the Colosseum Rome, Italy; Stockholm, Sweden; Hungarian Parliament, Hungary; Eiffel Tower Paris, France; the Puerta de Alacalá, Madrid, Spain; the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, the Riesenrad in Vienna, Austria and the Belém Tower, in Lisbon, Portugal.

Labelling Required

It is this consumer rejection that has led to the world's strictest labelling legislation and has forced the vast majority of EU food producers and retailers to stop using GE labelled ingredients in their own brand food products within the EU.

However there is still a major failing in the law, food products made from animals fed on GE do not have to be labelled. Currently, between 20-30 percent of animal feed is GE. As such our offices in the UK and Germany have been targeting dairy companies in a bid to get them to change their policies. This loophole needs to be closed immediately and allow real consumer choice to be extended also to meat and dairy produce.

"Dumping millions of tons of GE crops unseen into animal feed is a dangerous experiment. The meat and diary industry should take immediate action to source guaranteed GE free animal feed, which is in plentiful supply," added Martina Holbach, our International GE campaigner.

Roughly 20 million tons of GE soya and GE maize were imported into the EU last year, mainly for use as feed for the meat and dairy industry. The new GE labelling legislation requires that animal feed needs to be labelled when it contains GMOs.

Furthermore, the EU Commission is currently planning to allow 0.3 - 0.7 percent GE contamination in conventional seeds. The Directive would allow for 0.3-0.5 percent of GMOs to be present in all conventional and organic seeds, without farmers even knowing about it. Legalising GE contamination of the seed stock at the very beginning of the food chain would not only substantially drive up the costs of GE-free food and agriculture. There would be little to no chance for the 'co-existence' between GE and non-GE farming.

Deputy joins CM in allaying farmers fear

News Desk - November 5, 2009

PATNA — Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi today joined Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in allaying the fears of the landowners saying that their land would not be usurped by sharecroppers.

“Opposition parties including RJD, LJP and Congress are spreading the canard that the present NDA dispensation was out to usurp the land of upper castes in the name of implementing land reforms. I must say that nobody is going to lose his rights over the land of his forefathers,” Modi said here.

There is no law as such which could ensure that share croppers will have the right on the land which they have been tilling for past several years.

“Even the Bihar Tenancy Act (1986) is silent over the issue,” Modi said.

“How can a government even think in terms of touching the land ownership issue in a state where 92.5% of the total 1.04 crore holdings are of less than 5 acres,” he said adding most of the farmers in Bihar are small and marginal farmers.

– AGENCIES

Organic farmers to mobilise opinion against Bt brinjal

BS Reporter / Chennai/ Mysore November 04, 2009, 0:13 IST
Organic farmers from the Mysore region have launched a programme to create public awareness on the harmful effects of the bio-tech food and vegetables and mobilise their voice against the introduction of Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) brinjal into the market.

One such awareness programme held recently in Dharwad was a big success with good response from farmers and others, and they plan to have more such programmes in other parts of the state, State Organic Farming Mission member Vivek Cariappa said here in Mysore.

“We plan to distribute handbills and pamphlets warning farmers and the general public of risks to come from genetically-modified organisms in our food,” he said.

Explaining the present position on the release of Bt brinjal seeds, he said the Genetic Engineering Approval (GEAC), the regulatory authority for transgenic crops in India, was only the first step towards commercialisation of the seed. Many steps in the protocol required by law still remain before the seeds can be bought across the counter legally. They comprise of approval by the Environment and Forest, Science and Technology, Agriculture and RDPR ministries. Public hearing is still to be held.

Welcoming public apprehension on the introduction of Bt brinjal, Vivek and Julie Cariappa, organic farmers in H D Kote with over two decades of field experience, said, “It is a wake up call for us to act before politicians, scientists and corporates decide on the future of our food, seeds and genetic security. We must exercise our democratic right to be heard on such an important issue of national security.”

“To do so, we must inform ourselves of the issue of GM food and be ready to counter the GM lobby. We must insist on being informed of all public hearings on the issue well before the date, in all languages and to be held in all gram panchayats to ensure a democratic participation. We must remind the state governments that agriculture is a state subject and states are obliged to take a stand to formulate policies based on public opinion and the genetic security of the state,” the farm activist said.

The bio-diversity rich zones should be looked in the light of them being home to huge germplasm, home to thousands of medicinal plants and heritage sites and ensure any risks of transgenic contamination. The states have to make public the work being done in GM in their agricultural universities.

Vivek warned of the impact and dangers of Bt foods and vegetables on “our internationally acclaimed health systems such as ayurveda, unani, siddha and homeopathy, not to mention our ‘nati’ (local) medicine. We cannot risk losing our precious past to transgenic contamination.”

He warned Bt brinjal, which was not in great demand like any other essential commodity, could increase production, but gene jumping could destroy the rich agricultural system, destroying soil fertility hitting food production and increase health risk chances.

Food security exists in traditional seeds: Tomar

Category »  Bhopal Posted On Monday, November 02, 2009

By Our Staff Reporter Bhopal, Nov 2: BJP State President and Member of Parliament Narendra Singh Tomar said that Indian agriculture and food security exists in traditional seeds and traditional farming and not in modified seeds. He said that the result of BT Cotton was dangerous. Farmers of different states who were engaged in BT Cotton farming became economically weaker. They had to fight with diseases and pests on the crops.  Tomar said that before taking a final decision on BT Brinjal the Central Government should conduct detailed inquiry on the results of BT Cotton. He said that thousands of farmers who took up BT Cotton farming as a pilot project became penniless and are under great financial burden. A lot of BT Cotton producing farmers committed suicide due to financial burden. BT Cotton is not suitable to our land and therefore the yield was not sufficient. He said that results of BT Cotton farming were very bad in Madhya Pradesh also. Traditional cotton seeds need less water and manure and maintain production capacity of the land. The BT Brinja seeds would be dangerous to food security of the country, he warned.

Thanks to drought, farmers taking to floriculture

News Desk - November 2, 2009

Chainpur (Bihar), Nov 2: Changeover from traditional crop farming to floriculture by several farmers of Chainpur village in Bihar is taking place, due to drought-like conditions in the region.

An increasing number of farmers in Chainpur village of Masaurhi subdivision near Patna are substituting traditional farming with flower cultivation.

Nawal Kumar, a floriculturist who used to grow wheat and rice earlier feels that growing flowers is more beneficial.

“The production of wheat and rice was not good this year. So we have switched over to flower cultivation. It is beneficial as it is providing profits. The flower cultivation requires less water for irrigation. Hence it is very beneficial,” he said.

He also said that a farmer earns around Rs 30,000 to Rs 40,000 from the cultivation of less than half acre of land.

Traditional harvest of the farmers was damaged due to delayed monsoon and deficient rainwater. Floriculture is the new best alternative for farmers fearing low yield and a heavy loss.

- AGENCIES

Zero tolerance for GM foods in Europe

http://www.http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2009/11/02/stories/2009110250300900.htm

Mohan Murti

Food is to European culture what free speech is to American culture. There may not always be a good scientific reason for concern, but to consider eating something that has resulted from some laboratory manoeuvring is felt by many Europeans as a kind of refutation of the true self.

Whether judiciously or not, most Europeans are frightened to death of genetically modified food. And, this is not entirely a matter of Europeans’ falling victim to protectionist propaganda or frenzy. Trying to force genetically modified food down European throats is the surest way to guarantee that they swallow neither the potatoes nor a lot of the tactics to dump GM foods.

More than ever today, Europeans are talking about where their food comes from. Food scares push people towards farmers’ markets and more home-cooked fare made with fresh ingredients.

The Atharva Veda 12:1:62, says

O Mother Earth,

Let thy bosom be free

From sickness and decay

May we through long life

Be active and vigilant

And serve thee with devotion

In most of Europe, this Atharva Veda concept of manipulation-free, local-food movement has been gaining momentum in recent years.

Right Decision

Europeans applaud the recent Indian Government’s pronouncement to postpone its decision on the approval of genetically modified Bt aubergines. There are compelling reasons, Europeans feel, why India cannot afford to ignore the environmental and health risks of genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

In Europe, regulations are being imposed in the Parliament, individual European nations, and some stores themselves have all imposed restrictions on GM foods.

There is virtually no market for GM foods in Europe as consumers and farmers have overwhelmingly rejected them. EU labelling and traceability regulations also give consumers better information to decide.

Several European retailers have a policy of not selling, under their own brand name, any product requiring a GM label in their markets. Most have put this policy in place years ago, and all have quality-control tests and audit systems to exclude GM ingredients. Countries that have planted GM crops on a large scale have seen their exports to Europe crash.

European Scenario

European farmers are rejecting GM crops and turning to ecological farming. They do not want to be at the mercy of bullying multinationals which are threatening to take control of food.

Most of the 27 EU nations are opposed to GMOs because of risks to the environment and the kind of cross-pollination, of which the Spanish farmers and others have complained. They have been calling for the EU’s agreement on authorising such crops, and the evaluation methods used by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to be beefed up, notably to put more emphasis on the risks of cross-pollination.

Only a handful of GMOs have been approved for cultivation in the EU; of them, only Monsanto’s MON810 maize, approved in 1998, is so far being grown.

The MON810 case has become a source of transatlantic friction. The US has warned Europe against using environmental issues as an excuse for protectionism.

In Germany, the federal states are responsible for official food surveillance. Each of the 16 states has established at least one laboratory for analysing foods for their content of GMOs and, thereby, for their compliance with labelling regulations. Each year, thousands of foods are tested.

The individual results vary from state to state and year to year, but there is a clear trend.

Foods derived from unauthorised GM crops are usually picked up by the European Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) and turned back at the borders. This system prevents unauthorised products from reaching the European market.

GMO-free label

Since May 2008, it has been possible in Germany to apply the label “without gene technology” to food products. Its primary application is in the identification of foods such as milk or meat, derived from animals for which no genetically modified plants such as maize or soy were used in feed.

The criteria are stricter for other foodstuffs: Neither the application of additives obtained through genetic modification nor the accidental admixture of genetically modified plants is allowed.

The standardised logo is making it easier for consumers to choose food products without gene technology in an informed manner.

No more soy shipments are reaching European shores from the US. After several ships were turned away due to traces of Bt maize MON88017 and MIR604 being found in the cargo, all importers are shying away from the risk of such imports.

Europeans are convinced that contamination of the food-chain with GM ingredients and GMOs would create serious and possibly irreversible economic impacts on farmers.

The resulting economic losses — together with patent infringement lawsuits by the biotechnology companies — are likely to lead to a veritable Pandora’s box of legal actions.

Genie in the Bottle

For Europeans, genetic engineering of plant life is ‘sinful’

Europeans believe that the science of genetic engineering is unpredictable and that this ‘Golden Goose’ of industry is laying some stale, mouldy, rotten eggs.

(The author is former Europe Director, CII, and lives in Cologne, Germany.blfeedback@thehindu.co.in)

Invite: Day Long Orientation Session on GMOs

Invite: Day Long Orientation Session on GMOs

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