Greenpeace takes legal action against genetic contamination

Amsterdam, May 25— Greenpeace today took legal action against the Dutch seed company Advanta and the government of Germany to enforce the immediate destruction of oilseed rape fields contaminated with genetically engineered (GE) rape seed varieties from Canada. No genetically engineered oil seed rape has been approved in Europe, making its planting illegal.

“The European and respective national legislation clearly state that any release of unapproved genetically engineered organisms (GMOs) such as the GE oilseed rape is illegal,” said Benny Haerlin of Greenpeace. “It is the obligation of seed companies to recall all contaminated seed and compensate farmers and it is the obligation of governments to enforce the law.”

While the Swedish Board of Agriculture yesterday announced that all fields planted with the contaminated Advanta oil seed rape variety Hyola has to be destroyed, Germany and the United Kingdom have claimed that there is neither legal basis nor environmental need to take such action. In France, where the first fields of Advanta oilseed rape were destroyed voluntarily yesterday by a farmer, the government has still not decided how to deal with the case. Minor quantities of the contaminated variety have also been identified in Luxembourg, Norway and Finland.

Greenpeace yesterday made public a letter from the European Seed Associations (ESA) to Agricultural Ministers and the EU Commission calling for contamination of conventional seed up to one percent by GMOs as a legal standard. According to ESA its members are already using one per cent level as “voluntary standard.” The legalization would clearly break the EU directive on releases of GMOs into the environment. “As seeds are living organisms capable of replicating there are no environmentally safe thresholds for minimal contamination,” said Haerlin. “The biotech industry and seed companies are trying to sneak GMOs into our environment and food chain by demanding contamination levels. This must be stopped immediately.”

Such contamination would especially be a problem with maize (corn) seed imported to the EU from the US, which accounts for about 15 percent of the entire acreage of maize planted in Europe.

Greenpeace demands that the European governments immediately perform DNA tests to map out the extent of GMO contamination of seed. “Unless GMO producing countries, such as the US, Canada and Argentina, can prove their conventional seed is 100 per cent GE-free, these seeds should not be planted or sold within the EU,” Haerlin said. “Nobody has the right to contaminate the seed diversity of a country and there is no ethical, environmental or legal excuse for this.”

In 1999, US maize seed exports to the EU were slightly over 21,000 metric tons, which would cover around 870,000 hectares out of a total of 4.1 million hectares planted within the EU. According to an article in this week’s New Scientist, a random check of 20 conventional maize varieties in the US revealed that more than half of them contained GMOs.

Source: IGC: www.igc.org

Activists destroy biotech crops in California

By Denny Henke

Woodland, California, May 25— On the evenings of May 23 and May 24 anti-biotechnology direct action activists “harvested” GE crops in greenhouses at the Seminis Vegetable Seeds Research Center. Crops destroyed included tomatoes, broccoli, peas, onions, and peppers.

According to the communiqué, “All of the crops we harvested were either labeled transgenic, were ones that the company is known to be researching, or are already selling commercially.”

With the growing season heating up, the direct action anti-GE movement is intensifying its activities in North America. This action by the FFA comes just days after a Reclaim the Seeds action in Albany, CA and two weeks after activists in Hawaii uprooted crops in a Novartis research facility.

Internationally the direct action movement against genetically modified organisms (GMO’s) such as corn, soya, rapeseed, and genetically altered forests also continues to grow. Direct action activists maintain that genetically modified organisms exist for one reason: the drive for profit by large multinational corporations.

The communiqué states that Seminis is “one of the most ambitious developers of genetically mutilated crops, holding the most diverse selection of permits of any biotech corporation in the state of California.”

Source: Direct Action Media Network:damn@tao.ca

England’s GM seeds fiasco

North Suffolk, England, May 23— A farmer affected by the Advanta Seeds GM contamination incident has decided to dig up his crop.

The affected crop was a spring oilseed rape variety (Hyola 38) which was contaminated with up to 1% of GM seed. Major British supermarkets have said that they will refuse to buy the crops from farmers who planted the contaminated seed, leaving them facing considerable financial loss. It is believed that Advanta has instructed farmers not to dig up the crop in the UK. The British Government has done nothing to prevent the affected crop from being grown, although in Sweden the government is moving to ensure that it is removed from the ground as soon as possible.

Commenting, Friends Of the Earth Real Food Campaigner Pete Riley said, “This is a brave action by an individual farmer facing company pressure and government indifference. But it is a disgrace that farmers have been put in this position.

“We have repeatedly warned the government that the issue of liability for damage caused by GM crops is completely unresolved. Incidents like this are bound to happen again if the headlong rush to commercial development of GM crops continues.”

Source: IGC: www.igc.org