From: "janice" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Call Ban: Genetic Modification In Agriculture and Food
Date: Sat, 5 Dec 1998 17:17:39 +1300
Global Organic Groups Urge Biotech Crop Ban
LONDON, UK, November 27, 1998 (ENS) - In a dramatic bid to heat up
debate over genetic engineering, delegates from more than 60 countries
attending the International Federation of Organic Agriculture
Movements (IFOAM) have called on governments and regulatory agencies
throughout the world to immediately ban the use of genetic
modification in all kinds of agriculture and food production.
The call for concerted international global action was led by Patrick
Holden, director of the UK's Soil Association. It received
overwhelming support from 740 IFOAM member organisations attending an
IFOAM congress in Mar del Planta, Argentina, especially those
representing small farmers in the less developed nations.
Soy bean plants
Helen Browning of the Soil Association said Thursday that the
declaration was "highly significant for debate in Europe, where the
widespread application of GMOs in agriculture is now far from
inevitable and can still be stopped."
"Retailers and governments are now highly sensitive to public opinion
on this," she said. "At the same time the new German coalition
government needs to sharpen the European Union's position on
genetically modified organisms (GMOs) during the early months of its
presidency before the next round of World Trade Organisation talks,
where conflict with the USA is inevitable."
Outgoing IFOAM president Herv� la Prarie of French organic producer's
association FNAB also welcomed the declaration Thursday. "The organic
movement in Europe may have won the battle to keep GMO's out of the
organic food chain," he said, "but organic producers across the globe
know they still face grave problems in the future if, in the mean
time, genetic engineering is permitted everywhere in conventional
agriculture."
IFOAM estimates that worldwide production of crops modified by
biotechnology already exceeds 40 million hectares (98.8 million
acres).
The declaration calls for all genetically modified crops to be banned
on the basis that they pose unacceptable threats to human health and
the environment while violating small farmers' property rights and
undermining the future security and sustainability of the food system.
In Brazil, the world's second largest producer of soybeans, a court
ruling in September temoporarily prohibits the government from
authorizing the planting and marketing of Monsanto's genetically
manipulated Roundup Ready soybeans.
This decision was obtained by the Brazilian Institute for Consumer
Defense (IDEC) after Monsanto petitioned the government to deregulate
its product, which makes the soya beans more resistent to the
herbicide glyphosate, also marketed by Monsanto.
IDEC's main arguments were related to the lack of regulations of food
safety, labelling and marketing for these genetically manipulated
products, as well as the need for studies of environmental impact
required by law.
Meanwhile, in Brussels, Belgium, European Union (EU) agriculture
ministers have reached a political agreement on a package of measures
governing procedures for new seeds that should take over the role of
authorising genetically modified crop varieties from the EU's current
"deliberate release" directive in about two years.
Biotech corn by Monsanto
This Tuesday, the plans were approved by a qualified majority of EU
countries. Under the agreement, controls to be imposed on GM seeds
will be "as strict" as those now in force under the deliberate release
directive, sources say. Any new measures introduced under the ongoing
revision of the deliberate release directive will be automatically
introduced to the seeds package.
Ministers also agreed on a measure that will allow EU member states to
trigger the "environmental guarantee" clause in the 1997 Amsterdam
treaty if they object to an EU authorisation of GM seeds.
{ENDS Environment Daily contributed to this story. Europe's choice for
environmental news. Environmental Data Services Ltd, London.
http://www.ends.co.uk; Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]}
� Environment News Service (ENS) 1998. All Rights Reserved.
janice
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