Tag Archives: EU

Illeagal GMO’s sowing in EU

 

Green activist s put Braila island, on the Danube river, under quarantine, after Greenpeace field investigations revealed that illegal Genetically Modified (GMO) Soya, is being grown and harvested there.

Romania — Environmental activists placed an entire island under strict quarantine after finding illegal genetically modified (GMO) soya being grown there.

Bralia Island in Romania is normally a quiet agricultural area on the Danube river but now it is the site of a massive environmental contamination by soya that has been genetically modified by the agricultural chemical company, Monsanto.

The peaceful action in Romania began early in the morning when 30 green activists from across Europe set up a ‘decontamination station’ at the ferry harbor region on Braila Island.

All automobiles leaving the island were decontaminated by being carefully washed to prevent the genetic contamination from spreading further.

It is unlawful for member states of the European Union which includes Romania, to grow GMO Soya. Greenpeace is calling on the Romanian government and the European Commission to act instantly to find and destroy all of the unlawfully cultivated GMO Soya.

 
“We have taken action to protect the rest of Romania from contamination by these illegal GMO crops, which pose massive risks to the environment, biodiversity and human heath. Romanian people have overwhelmingly rejected GMO,” said Gabriel Paun, Greenpeace Romania, GMO campaigner.

“This is not the first time Greenpeace has discovered illegal GMO production in Romania, the situation is out of control. The Government must immediately locate and destroy all of the crops before they enter the food chain.”

At the same time as activists were decontaminating Bralia Island in Romania, more activists were busy taking action against another site of GMO contamination in France. 20 volunteers painted a field of unlawfully grown GMO maize (corn) bright red, in order to expose its location.

The GMO maize, known as MON810, is another genetically modified product being pushed onto customers by Monsanto. The GMO maize is being illegally grown, as either the farmer, or the French governments have “forget” to tell the public of its presence as required under French law.

“By failing to take control, the Romanian and French governments are allowing biotech companies such as Monsanto, to run riot over their environment and ignore the wishes of European people; contaminating their food and their fields” said Myrto Pispini, Greenpeace International GMO campaigner.

Posted 10 September 2007 † botond § GMO ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged: , , ,

Romania will be the back door of GMO to EU?

 
The Black Sea state which has joined the EU in 2007 was Europe’s biggest soy grower until 1989 and remains the continent’s alone produce gene-spliced soybeans, brought a decade ago by US biotech companies like Monsanto Co and Pioneer.
The green organizations have charged firms pioneering GMO’s of using poor east European states as a back door to a averse EU do not want to sell and grow this type of soy bean in EU between 1998 and 2004.

“The ministry decided to ban the cultivation of genetically modified soy from next year to comply with the European regulatory norms,” Constantin Sin, the agriculture ministry’s GMO expert told Reuters.

Monsanto officials in Bucharest were not immediately available to comment.

Biotech companies say their technology helps fight starvation and poverty but the green organizations and many Europeans oppose GMO’s, which they fear might be risky for humans.

Romania, where there is almost no reluctance to embrace biotech foods among its 22 million population, put 61,000 ha under soy in 2004. The land had risen to 88,000 ha last year, or 0.6 percent of the country’s whole farmland.
Gene-spliced soy, which is used by Romanian farmers as animal feed, is the only GMO crop cultivated in Romania and accounts for two thirds of it’s larger soy outputwhich they use. (The question: where take they the rest of the GMO’s soy bean?)

 
Sin said the ministry is also drafting legislation to ban sowing genetically modified seeds from previous years’ crops in 2006. The bill will come into force later this year, he added.
“The bill aims to discourage farmer s from planting (genetically modified) soy. There will be fines worth thousands of euros for those who don’t comply with it,” Sin said.

He said a switch to traditional soy crops and the good information about this growing method would help farmers - who started growing GMO’s tempted by the higher profit margins - to benefit from badly needed EU aid once the country joins the wealthy bloc.

Romania has banned the GMO’s product from the country but some weeks ago the investigators found two big harvest close to the Black Sea.

Posted 10 September 2007 † botond § GMO ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged: , ,