THE SPREAD OF GM-FREE ZONES IN EUROPE (1,890 words, slightly edited for clarity):
Introduction by Michael OíCallaghan:
I was at the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development at Johannesburg in 2002, where I interviewed the leaders of most of the main international NGOs. The common thread which emerged was that, given most governments' track record of failure to implement the agreements they had made ten years earlier at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, it had become very obvious that almost everywhere in the world the governments now have a tendency to represent the interests of big business more than the interests of their own citizens, especially when it comes to issues like GM; that the clock is ticking and time is running out; and that itís up to civil society ‚ NGOs, church groups, citizens organizations ‚ to take the initiative, to take the lead in sustainability.
This whole process is really a revitalization of democracy. For example, small groups such the various organic certification bodies here in Ireland feel isolated, they are just managing to survive without any funds for public awareness or lobbying. Small groups like that sometimes feel ìwhat can we do? Weíre tiny, but we have to face large groups like Monsanto who have multiple billions of dollars for spin-doctoring and so on.î But if you think outside the box and look outside Ireland, you will find a huge constituency of people around the world who, for example, eat food three times a day and have a vested interest in making sure that their food is safe. So in terms of Evanís proposal that we should call on our government to keep the whole of this island GM-free, I believe we can find a lot of support in Europe and we need to mobilize that support. There are many governments in the EU, along with thousands of local GM-free areas, businesses and citizens groups who would like the whole of Europe to remain GM-free. Now in this regard there is an international treaty called the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety which came into effect last summer, and to which Ireland is a party. This treaty recognizes the right of any member state to exclude imports of GM food. To my knowledge, no country in the world has yet used that treaty to declare itself off-limits to GM. And I think there is a very strong case to be made for Ireland to become the first country in the EU to do that, and pay for our sins in a way, because we are upwind from windborne GM contamination from the rest of Europe 80% of the time. We are probably the EU country that is the least contaminated by GM pollen, we are surrounded by water, and we have a green image. Itís a win-win proposition for Irish farmers, businesses and consumers, and for our food export and tourist industries.
In connection with local GM free zones, I now pass the mike to Adrian Bebb from Friends of the Earth Europe, who has been helping to bring about GM-free zones across the continent.
Adrian Bebb:
Good morning everyone! Iím going to give you a quick overview of some of the schemes that are happening across Europe. We have been doing a lot of research during the past few months at Friends of the Earth, and have launched a new web site and a new campaign this last week trying to link up all these GM free areas. We have been absolutely gob-smacked by how many schemes are already up and running in different countries. And Iíd like to share some of these examples with you, to show that you are not alone here in Ireland, and that this is the start of an unstoppable movement. Iím also going to touch on some of the legal aspects as well to show what you can do under the current law and give you some of the principal background on this issue.
Friends of the Earth is a network of environmental groups in 68 different countries across the world. Weíve been going for about 30 years, basically campaigning around environmental and social justice issues. Within this international network we also have Friends of the Earth Europe - which I work for, based in Brussels - and we help support our groups in various EU countries. One of our biggest campaigns is our GM campaign.
This is the web site for the GM-free Europe campaign we have launched this week. It is where we compile all the information we have about GM free areas. Itís very much a beginning because we are hearing about new initiatives and new GM-free areas every day, and we hope that more and more information will become available from different countries over the next few months. And we hope that, before long, we can add Ireland to our list of GM-free countries.
So what is driving all this debate to create GM-free areas and countries? Let me give you some of the background. At the moment in Europe we have a moratorium on any new imports or licenses for new GM food and crops. This is going to end in the next few weeks.
This afternoon, EU Agriculture Ministers are meeting in Luxemburg to vote on the import of a GM maize from the multinational company called Syngenta, based in Switzerland. They are unlikely to support it because of semi-scientific disagreements about its safety. But the European Commission has had enough of this moratorium and is under pressure from the WTO and the United States and has said it is going to use its legal powers to put this GM maize on the market in the next few weeks ‚ even though there are many disagreements about its safety. So the moratorium which has been in place for the last six years is coming to an end in the next few weeks.
We have also seen a new approvals process in Europe and the biotech industry is filing many many applications to grow GM crops in Europe. So over this next year some decisions will have to be taken about the planting of GM seeds. So this commercial growing is getting nearer and nearer. There is already some commercial growing in the EU, but only in a little area in Spain. That is the only EU country which is currently growing GM crops. But applications are being made aimed at growing GM crops in Northern Europe.
We have seen more research showing the possible environmental damage caused by GM crops. The biggest trials to date have been in the UK. We have had the so-called Farm Scale Trials over the last four years, in which scientists compared he environmental impact of growing GM and non-GM crops. Their conclusion was that for two out of the three GM crops they tested, the environmental impact of the GM crops were actually worse than conventional intensive agriculture. Now these GM crops had already gone through all the scientific approval process, the biotech industry had already done all their research, we had been told they are safe, but these UK trials proved they actually damage the environment. So we are finding out more and more about the implications of growing these crops.
More and more scientists are saying that the contamination is unstoppable. If you consider a crop like oil-seed rape, there is no way we can tell the bees not to go into a GM field. Bees love oil-seed rape and are so attracted to it that they will actually travel miles out of their way to get to a field. We canít stop that. We canít stop the wind from blowing GM pollen from one field to the next. Scientists are quite open about this and admit that contamination of many crops is unstoppable. So if we let this cat out of the bag, if we do grow GM crops it is quite clear that there will be no going back and we are going to see all our food contaminated eventually.
But behind all this we have a great force, we have the public on our side. No-one wants GM foods. Itís no use to us. It is quite clear that the only benefits are to the biotech companies and their profits. About 70% of the European public, according to the polls, is against GM foods. They donít want to eat GM foods, and just under 95% want to have a choice, they want them to be labeled.
Now onto GM-free Europe. As published on our web site, our research shows that there are now GM-free areas or GM-free campaigns now running in 22 different European countries, and this number is growing by the day. We cannot keep track of all the different schemes that are taking place. Weíve also seen the formation of a network of GM-free regions. This was started by 10 regions in November last year. Another 3 regions joined this week. There is a related conference going on in Austria this Wednesday. More and more regions are joining this political alliance to try and convince the European institutions that we have the right to stay GM-free. I think this is a very important political movement which is now getting underway.
On our web site you will also see latest news: here is a photo of a demonstration in Stuttgart in Southern Germany last week, where 50 different organisations came together with 300 tractors and 10,000 people. More importantly, we have a clickable map on our web site where you can click on a country and find out what is going on there, who are the people to speak to, what the contacts are. Iíll show you a few examples. Here is France, where a thousand town mayors have issued GM-free declarations in various municipalities, and where three regions have issued GM-free statements and joined this European network. This clickable map takes you directly to the campaigns involved, which may not be run by Friends of the Earth, as we support any campaign that may be running in a particular country. Austria is probably the most active GM-free country, where 8 out of 9 provinces want to go GM-free, 100 municipalities have signed GM-free resolutions, and one region ‚ Upper Austria ‚ has actually passed a law banning all GM crops (which the European Commission is contesting), and five other regional governments have also applied to the national government to declare them GM-free. In Italy, 500 cities have taken a position against the use of GM in agriculture, and that equates to 80% of Italyís territory now being GM-free. Across the radioactive water to Britain, we now have 44 areas just in England ‚ either local authorities or national parks ‚ who have declared themselves GM-free or signed resolutions that they want to be GM-free. 35 Councils in Wales. A total UK population of 14 million now live under a GM-free policy. Leading the way, as we heard earlier on, is the National Assembly of Wales which voted several years ago to restrict GM crops. And hereís a map of Britain showing a few more regions that have joined up and now have GM-free areas. So as you see there are many examples, and thatís just a few of those 22 countries.
Now letís have a look at some of the legal context, the technical side. The European Commission is totally against GM-free zones, but according to a statement they made in January (2004) they accept that ìit would be difficult to reject these attempts at establishing GM-free zones which are driven by strong local public concern and economic considerations such as protection of local traditional agriculture. So we have got the door open at the moment. The Commission is under pressure; they know theyíve got to do something to allow these GM-free areas to exist. There are various legal opportunities at the moment. The main European Directive for GM crops is called 2001/18/EC. We won a very important amendment last year. There was a great campaign to get it in at very short notice, but we managed to get it in. It seems very technical, but there is this little quote which says ìmember states may take appropriate measures to avoid the unintended presence of GMOs in other products.î This is very very important as it basically says that countries may take steps to avoid contamination. Before we got that amendment, there was no basis in European law for countries to take any action against contamination. The Commission has brought out recommendations on how countries should interpret this in July last year, and conceded that measures of a regional dimension could be considered. So we are seeing that this door is open, weíve got legal opportunities, and should be using them.
There is another part of the Directive, which is being used in the GM-free Britain campaign, called Article 19. You can actually put conditions on every consent to grow GM crops which comes from Brussels. For instance you can put conditions on which chemicals can be used with it, But the law also says quite clearly that you can also put conditions on it to protect ecosystems and/or geographical areas. To me that is quite a strong argument to say that when a European consent comes out, you can say we donít want Ireland to be included in it, or we donít want the South-West of Britain, or we donít want a region of France to be included in that consent. So there are legal opportunities which we can use.
Another approach which has proven easiest is the voluntary agreement. This is what the Commission really wants everyone to do, because it avoids them getting in trouble with the World Trade Organisation. They are scared that if they do make it legal to have GM-free areas, America and the biotech companies will take these regions to the World Trade Organisation and say this is a barrier to trade. So the Commission is really into voluntary agreements, getting landowners and farmers all signed up to say they will not plant GM crops in their areas. This is particularly strong in Germany at the moment, where I actually live. In Bavaria, in the South of Germany, conventional farmers are running very big campaigns saying they are not to grow GM crops. There was an article in one of the newspapers this week saying that one of these schemes has 8,000 farmers now signed up, saying they will not plant GM crops on their land. This is obviously very popular with farmers, very popular with the Commission. But in my eyes itís not a long-term solution, because all you need is one farmer to come along in that area and say ìsod it, Iím going to grow GM cropsî and the rest of the farmers get contaminated and the scheme falls apart. So although I think itís a very good tactic at the moment and a good way to get started, and it gets a lot of attention, in my eyes itís not a long-term solution. Iím not a lawyer but this is my legal conclusion.
The best way forward at the moment is to use the co-existence legislation, i.e. to prevent the contamination. Unfortunately you have to argue on a case-by-case basis. Every crops that comes up you have to argue that is should be banned because it cannot co-exist with conventional or organic agriculture. I donít think thatís sufficient but thatís what weíve got at the moment because there is quite clearly no current EU legislation to say we want to be GM-free, full stop. That doesnít exist under EU law at the moment. And I think that is a really big hole.
But what we do know: the Commission is under pressure, the door is open, and itís got to offer us something. And this is the aim of Friends of the Earthís new GM-free Europe campaign: for the right of countries, regions or areas to prohibit the growth of GM crops. We are not interested in fighting each crop on a case-by-case basis and having to argue that co-existence doesnít work. If a country or a region wants to say ìwe want to be GM-free, thatís the way we want to market our agriculture and our food produceî then weíve got to find the laws to allow them to do that, regardless of whether itís in breach of the World Trade Organisation or not.
Thank you very much.
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