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Irish MEPs move to prevent GMO invasion (8/12/2006)

Irish MEPs move to prevent GMO invasion
GM-free Ireland press release, 7 December 2006.

DUBLIN, 7 December 2006 -- Irish MEPs Liam Aylward (FF), Kathy Sinnott (Independent) and Marian Harkin (Independent) have strongly criticised a controversial draft resolution on biotechnology and genetically modified crops to be voted on soon by the European Parliament.

The Resolution on Biotechnology: Prospects and Challenges for Agriculture in Europe (2006/2059 (INI) [1] is based on a paper written by a UK consulting firm [2] and is replete with biotech industry bias and misinformation [3].

The resolution seeks to downgrade the status of the Precautionary Principle in EU law, to discredit the scientific evidence that GM crops do not perform as expected, and to support giant agri-biotech corporations which want to seize control of European agricultural seeds through GMO crop patents [4]. Whoever controls the seeds controls the food [5]. According to EU and Irish patent law, farmers contaminated by GMOs no longer own their seeds and crops [6].

The draft resolution was submitted to the European Parliament by Kyosti Virrankoski MEP, from Finland, whose government repeatedly votes (with the Netherlands and Sweden) to legalise GM crops in Europe, while the other 22 EU member states often vote against or abstain.

The resolution must first be voted on by the EU Parliament Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development on 19 December. The two Irish MEPs on this committee are Liam Aylward and Mairead McGuinness. All MEPs will then vote on the final text on 31 January.

Liam Aylward MEP and the Polish MEP Bernard Wojciekowski called for the resolution to be withdrawn in its entirety.

Liam Aylward said: "I will vote against the adoption of the Virrankoski report in December and in the Plenary session in January 2007 because the introduction of GM technology will damage the reputation of Irish agriculture, with serious economic consequences for our farm, food and tourism sectors. Ireland should concentrate on organic and conventional agriculture, building on Ireland's reputation as a producer of fresh, good quality and healthy food products".

In a statement issued today on the draft resolution, Marian Harkin MEP said "I have particular problems with the multi-national companies which are progressively patenting agricultural seeds to exploit primary producers in Ireland and elsewhere. I find it particularly invidious that GMOs can cross contaminate other crops, leading to multi-national companies establishing rights they should not have."

Other MEPs have proposed 190 amendments [7] including 23 co-signed by Kathy Sinnott MEP (Independent) and submitted by MEPs Hiltrud Breyer (Germany), Jill Evans (UK), and Karin Scheele (Austria). These stipulate:

that there is a lack of transparency and public involvement in the policy making process;

that the European Commission's failure to present common measure for the "co-existence" of GMO crops shows that it is impossible to release them without environmental and health risks, and without affecting conventional and organic farming;

that no GMO crops should be allowed if there is risk of contamination and loss of market share for contaminated farmers;

that the regulation of biotechnology must be firmly grounded in the application of both the Precautionary Principle and the Polluter Pays principle, as stated in the EU Sustainable Development Strategy.

that there needs to be a debate at EU level with all stakeholders on liability for damages incurred in the growing and use of biotechnological products: who is liable, what can be claimed and under what circumstances a claim can be made; emphasises the importance of proportionality and fair play, stresses that farmers who deliver to certain markets and who want to maintain their production cannot bear the burden of losing their markets in case of contamination; stresses that liability must be based on the 'polluter pays' principle;

Kathy Sinnott emphasised that liability for GMO crop contamination must be based on the Polluter Pays principle, adding that "Irish farmers who want to continue delivering to the growing local and global GM-free food cannot bear the burden of the massive economic losses that will arise if they are contaminated. The whole of Ireland should be declared a GMO free zone."

Mairead McGuinness MEP submitted 22 more superficial amendments. While admitting that the draft text of the resolution is biased in favour of the agri-biotech corporations, she failed to call for the deletion of a clause intended to weaken liability laws. Last week she told Friends of the Earth Europe that "the anti GM lobby must be aware of reality" and that "bans on GMOs are too simplistic." [8].

But six European governments and 175 regional governments in 22 EU member states [9] have already implemented total or near-total bans on GMOs because of their legal, economic, health, environmental and food security risks [10]. Poland, the EU's largest agricultural producer, recently defied both WTO and EC laws with legislation that prohibits all GMO seeds and crops, giving the biotech industry a one-year deadline to prove that GM animal feed is safe before prohibiting its use as well.

There is now world-wide evidence that GMO seeds and crop inevitably contaminate seeds, crops and food [11], and there is no market for GM food in Europe and many other countries [12].

Liam Aylward MEP said "GM crops can NOT co-exist with conventional and organic crops. Cross pollination is inevitable through wind, animals and other wildlife. As Minister of State in the Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry from 2002-2004, this belief was strengthened through first hand experience of the GMO issue, the patenting of GM seeds, and the health and environmental impacts of GMOs including the destruction of biodiversity. I am against the introduction of GM crops into Ireland."

Ruth Hegarty, the Secretary-General of Euro-Toques Ireland (the country's leading chefs organisation [13], said "any resolution from the European Parliament which so dramatically and incautiously favours GM technology has the potential to open the floodgates for its careless proliferation. We are totally opposed to GM food and farming because of concerns about consumer choice, possible environmental and health impacts, the reputation of our country and the possible affects on our food and tourism industry and our food exports, and questions of food diversity and food security. We do not believe that

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