Right to national GMO bans upheld: European Commission defeated

Campaigners in Hungary demonstrating for the GMO ban to be upheld (Photo credit: www.g2foto.hu)

March 2, 2009 Brussels – Today, the European Commission was defeated in its latest attempt to force two countries to drop bans on controversial genetically modified maize. It was the second and third time that Hungary and Austria respectively had come under attack by the European Commission for refusing to grow GM maize. Friends of the Earth has welcomed the vote.  More...

Biotech industry fakes growth of GM crops in Europe

(Photo credit: j.christiansen/onehemisphere)

On the eve of the release of annual industry-sponsored figures by the ISAAA, a new report today from Friends of the Earth International reveals the failure of genetically modified crops around the world, and how statistics showing their increase in Europe have been manipulated. Read the full report here

Figures issued by the European biotech industry lobby group EuropaBio erased the latest country to have banned growing GM crops – France – from its calculations. By doing this, the biotech industry could falsely claim an increase of 21% in the area under cultivation in the EU in 2008. Infact there has been a 2% decline over the last year, and 35% decrease for all of Europe in the last 4 years.

The benefits of this kind of manipulation were made apparent when a couple of months after this data was first published, the President of the European Commission’s office quoted the false figure in a high level political meeting as a justification for the “growing interest in using GMOs in the EU” (see leaked documents here) 

The cultivation of GMOs remains a fraction of agriculture, with GM maize, the only GM crop approved, constituting a mere 0.21% of agricultural land in the European Union. Globally, GM crops are still confined to a handful of countries with highly industrialised, export-oriented agricultural sectors. Nearly 90% of the area planted to GM crops in 2007 was found in just six countries in North and South America, with 80% in the US, Argentina and Brazil. One country alone, the United States, plants over 50% of the world’s GM crops. Just 3% or less of cropland in India and China is planted to GM crops.

Read the Executive Summary

Read the EU media briefing

Read the critique on the ISAAA inflated GM crop data

European Commission pushes for new GM crops in Europe

(Photo credit: www.flickr.com)

On 21 January 2009, The European Commission issued proposals for two new varieties of genetically modified (GM) maize to be grown in Europe despite outstanding safety concerns.

In a proposal sent to EU member states, the Commission also says it wants to force Greece, Hungary and France to drop their national bans on a similar GM maize. Read more

Rising prices for animal feed
The facts behind the fiction


Heartland Jerseys

The EU's stance on GMOs is not a threat to the livestock industry, contrary to claims by the industry and the European Commission. This scaremongering is an attempt to use rising animal feed prices to weaken EU GMO policy. This is also being used by the biotech industry to push for the "zero tolerance" policy to be dropped.
But it is in fact the blind rush for agrofuels and poor weather conditions that are causing the worldwide shortages in key feed crops.

Click here for more information and resources on zero tolerance.
Read Friends of the Earth's GMO livestock briefing for the facts behind the fiction.