Izmit, 5 October.
Even before the GMO Monster tomato arrived in Izmit today it was already
announced by the local press: ' Monster tomato on its way to Ankara' was
the headline of one local newspaper.
The bad news was that the police did not authorise the tomato in one of
the most visited streets of the city and that the tomato had to change to
a less frequented location. Nevertheless this change did not prevent the
tomato from catching the eyes of many citizens of Izmit. And as in
Istanbul the motivation to sign the petition against GMOs was again very
high.
After Istanbul and Izmit more than 12.500 Turkish people have already
signed the petition. For Turkish standards this is an exceptionally high
number, since petitions are a quite rare phenonomen here and only used
since recently announced steps of the government in the direction of
more democracy and public participation. And the tomato tour has only
just started !
Around 11:30 representatives of trade-unions and the chamber of
agriculture of Izmit read a declaration to the local media urging the
authorities to include the mandatory labelling of GM food in Turkish
law.
The US company 'Cargill', which has close ties with biotech giant
Monsanto, runs a storage facility in the port in Izmit and according to
local activists, it is very likely that maize, soja and wheat imported by
Cargill contains GMOs. The issue is quite sensitive and when we tried to
visit the port wearing the T-shirts of the Turkish anti GMO platform,
but security people did not allow us to go in. So, we could only see the
Cargill buiding from the outside.
Today, thanks to the Monster tomato many more citizens in Turkey know
about GMOs and their risks.
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