On Wednesday 9th October hundreds of people from across Europe will march through the streets of Brussels, pushing supermarket trolleys filled with food free from genetically modified (GM) ingredients. The trolley parade, organised by Friends of the Earth, will call on European ministers to take urgent action to protect European food from GM contamination. The EU is due to make several important decisions on GM food and crops over the coming weeks.

The route of the trolley parade:

For more details, the route and the petition: see the special trolley action website (regularly updated): http://www.foeeurope.org/GMOs/trolley_action/home.htm.

Delegations

During the parade, delegations of FoE groups from the following countries will be present:

Austria: Global 2000
Belgium: Les Amis de la Terre 
Croatia: Zelena Akcija
Denmark: NOAH
England, Wales and NI: Friends of the Earth
France: Les Amis de la Terre
Germany: BUND
Greece: Nea Ecologia
Hungary:Magyar Természetvédok Szövetsége
Ireland: Earthwatch
Italy: Amici Della Terra
Luxembourg: Mouvement Ecologique
The Netherlands: Milieudefensie
Scotland: Friends of the Earth Scotland
Spain: Amigos de la Tierra
Sweden: Miljöförbundet Jordens Vänner

Representatives of the above organisations are available for interviews before, during and after the trolley action.
For more details, please contact the FoE Europe office:

Later this month, EU Member States will make several important decisions concerning GM food [1].

• On the 16th October the Agricultural Council of EU ministers will vote on a proposal to label all food and animal feed derived from GMOs.
• On 17th October EU Environment ministers will vote on a similar proposal.
• In the first week of November, EU Member States will hold an indicative vote on a proposal to allow seeds to contain up to 0.7 % of genetic contamination before they need to be labelled.

Give Europeans the right to eat GM-free food

According to the latest opinion polls, 71% of European citizens are opposed to GM food [2]. The Brussels trolley parade will remind European politicians about the public’s overwhelming rejection of this new technology, and will urge ministers to vote in favour of labelling of all food and animal feed derived from GMOs and against proposals to allow ‘accidental’ genetic pollution in food, animal feed and seeds.

Reject non authorised GMOs in food and feed

The Danish Presidency has introduced 'transitional measure' into the draft labelling proposals. These would allow food contaminated by GMOs that haven't been authorised in Europe - up to a 1% threshold - to be sold in Europe for three years, without being labelled. For example this could mean that for a period of three years, one in every hundred tomatoes sold could be a GM variety unapproved in Europe, and - because it wouldn't need to be labelled - would be almost impossible for consumers to avoid.

Zero tolerance for genetic pollution in food and feed

The Danish Presidency and the European Commission are proposing to install a threshold (tolerance level) of 1 % for authorised GMOs in all food and animal feed before these products have to be labelled. According to Friends of the Earth this proposal means legalising genetic pollution. The tolerance level should be the lowest detecteable level (the so called "technical zero"), for unauthorised and unauthorised GMOs alike.

No to genetic pollution of seeds

A proposal to allow genetic pollution in seed lots is even more worrying. Since seeds are at the beginning of the food chain, this proposal threatens the supply of GM-free food.

Keep up the EU moratorium on GMOs

European ministers are under increasing pressure from the biotech industry and the US to allow more GMOs into Europe. During the Council meetings in October they might even decide to drop the current EU-wide moratorium on approving any new GMOs. It is far too early to even consider such a step. The moratorium should be upheld until adequate biosafety regulations against the risks of GMOs and liability rules for GMO operators and GMO producers are in place. Also laws requiring the labelling of all GM food and GM animal feed should be fully operational.

Footnotes

[1] On 16th October the Agricultural and Fisheries Council will vote upon the draft EU legislation on GM food/feed (COM (2001) 425 final), which deals with authorization of genetically modified food and animal feed, and also with traceability and labelling of GM food and GM animal feed.

· On 17th October the Environmental Council will vote about a proposal by the European Commission to install traceability for GM food and animal feed and to label all GM animal feed and all food derived from GMOs (COM (2001) 182 final).

· Beginning of November the Standing Committee on "Seeds and Propagating Material for Agriculture, Horticulture and Forestry" will hold an indicative vote on a draft Directive (working document SANCO/1542/02-Juy 2002) concerning the genetic contamination of seeds.

[2] www.europa.eu.int/comm/public_opinion/archives/eb/ebs_134_en.pdf