Genetically Engineered (GE) maize field in Southern France with a giant 'crop circle' with an 'X' in the GE maize, marking the field as a contamination zone. The action was in response to a ruling by a French court in which Greenpeace France was ordered to take down maps of commercial GE maize fields in France from its website.
The field that the activists 'crop circled' today was one of the
two GE maize fields highlighted on the censored Web page. "As we
are now forbidden to publish these maps of GE maize on our webpage,
we have gone into the fields and marked it for real," said Arnaud
Apoteker, of Greenpeace France. "We will continue to show where GE
maize is grown, until the French Government fulfils its
responsibility and publishes an official register of GE fields that
is accessible to every citizen."
The EU legislation (Directive 2001/18) that deals with GE
organisms shows how EU member states are obliged to maintain public
registers in order to inform their citizens about the locations of
GE fields. But the French Government has yet to make the EU's
directive into national law, thus depriving its citizens of vital
information to protect against the risk of GE contamination of
conventional and organic food.
"By publishing secret locations of fields of genetically
engineered maize, Greenpeace is defending the right to know and say
no to the environmental and health risks associated with GE
Organisms", said Geert Ritsema of Greenpeace International. "It is
absurd that the French legal system has prevented Greenpeace France
from providing vital information to the public, which according to
EU legislation should have been published years ago by the French
government."
Internationally, Greenpeace will continue to expose the
locations of GE fields. Although the map showing the French GE
maize fields has had to be removed from Greenpeace Frances' Web
site it is now available at: www.greenpeace.org The map will also
be distributed virally via email and in doing so be available to
millions of people around the world. The action today marks the
beginning of a global campaign to inform the public about the risks
of GE maize cultivation for the environment and to human
health.
France is not the only EU country where the growing of GE
organisms is shrouded in secrecy. In Spain, the government has so
far refused to publish the locations of GE fields. The dramatic
consequences of this policy became clear in April of this year when
Greenpeace published a report 'Impossible Coexistence' showing that
in nearly 20 % of the investigated cases, neighbouring conventional
and organic maize fields in Spain are contaminated by GE organisms,
without farmers and consumers even knowing about it. (2)
Greenpeace campaigns for GE-free crop and food production that
is grounded in the principles of sustainability, protection of
biodiversity and providing all people to have access to safe and
nutritious food. Genetic engineering is an unnecessary and unwanted
technology that contaminates the environment, threatens
biodiversity and poses unacceptable risks to health.
VVPR info: Geert Ritsema, Greenpeace International GE campaigner, mob +31 646 197 328Arnaud Apoteker, Greenpeace France GE campaigner, mob + 33 6 0757 3160Suzette Jackson, Greenpeace International communications officer mob +31 646 197 324For images and videoPicture deskFranca Michienzi mob +31 6 5381 9255Video deskHester van Meurs mob +31 6 2900 1135
Notes: Impossible Coexistence: How seven years of growing GE organisms have contaminated organic and conventional maize: an examination of the cases of Catalonia and Aragon, is available for downloading at: www.greenpeace.org/international/press/reports/impossible-coexistenceThe report, which was written by Greenpeace in cooperation with farmer organisation Assemblea Pagesa and civil society group Plataforma Trangènics Fora!, was launched in April 2006.