PRESS RELEASE OF CPE,
European Farmers Coordination
rue Sablonnire 18 – 1000 BRUXELLES
TEL : +32-2-217 31 12
FAX : +32-2-218 45 09
GMOs: co-existence is not possible
European farmers and consumers dont want genetically modified crops.
Political borders cannot contain contamination from GM crops.
The European Union must ban them.
The very large majority of the European farmers, who as a group are the first to be concerned in this matter, wants Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) neither to be in the fields nor in animal feed. Almost every public opinion poll shows that European consumers do not want GM food.
No legislation will be able to prevent a continuous contamination of fields, environment, and seeds by the natural processes and trade. Cross pollination, transport by wind, soil bacteria, insects, birds and other animals, are among the many possible routes for transgenes to spread. Silos, cargo liners, agri-food factories are among the many places where the GM-free food can be contaminated. Coexistence between GM-free agriculture and GM agriculture is therefore impossible. Genetic contamination is unavoidable and irreversible. Moreover no insurance company agrees to cover the risks related to this contamination.
The European Union misleads public opinion: the legislation on coexistence, left in the hands of its Member States, will not leave the "free choice" to farmers and consumers. In fact, the freedom for GM-free farming and for consuming GM-free food would be of quite short duration. Pretending to regulate coexistence is a way to impose GMOs against the choice of the population because it will be too late to reverse course and remedy the damage.
The decision of many regional Parliaments in the EU to declare themselves GM-free is an act of resistance that we welcome and support. It is an illusion, though, to believe that in the medium and long term these regions can maintain their GM-free status. If the coexistence is impossible between fields, the same applies to regions with different policies on GM. We therefore ask all regional authorities opposed to GMOs to push for a global ban of GM crops in Europe and at the international level. A regional ban is simply not enough. A global ban is essential if we want to guarantee our children GM-free agriculture and food.
The European Union cannot leave on the hands of the WTO decisions that affect its agricultural production and the nature of its food. The EU must defend its food sovereignty. The international Convention on Biosafety (Cartagena protocol) provides the EU with the possibility to remain GM-free. It is essential for the international farming community to use the right of food sovereignty and to ban GMOs definitively from Europe. A victory on GMOs can be a sign of hope to farmers in the global south who are already heavily victimised by GM crops.
CPE demands a moratorium on any cultivation, any import or trade of agricultural GMO, as well of contaminated seed (above detection level).
The European Farmers Coordination thus invites European citizens to participate:
- April 5 in Vienna in the European March against GMOs and
- April 8 in their country at the international action day against GMOs.
Brussels, April 3, 2006