During a research tour in Romania, Greenpeace discovered
illegalgrowing of GE soya in ten counties of the country's total
42.Greenpeace presented findings (1) that prove that Romanian
authoritieshave lost control over the situation.
Romania, a future member of the EU, is the only country in
Europe whereplanting of the controversial Roundup Ready (RR) soya
is allowed. Thecountry has the largest GE-cultivated landscape in
Europe; officiallyhalf the 140,000 hectares of soya planted in 2005
is registered to beGE.
However, according to representatives of farmers' associations
and evenbiotech giant Monsanto's former Romanian manager, up to 90%
of soya isGE. The core of the problem is due to genetically
engineered cropscontaminating the traditional cultures, as well as
the illegal sellingof GE soya seeds.
Gabriel Paun, Greenpeace Central-Eastern European (CEE)
campaigner inRomania said: "In the past few months we have found GE
potatoes, GEplums and now it turns out that even the commercial
planting of GE soyahappens illegally.
What's next? The Romanian government must act immediately and
take backcontrol of the situation."Mr. Dragos Dima, former Monsanto
general manager in Romania agrees withthe fears. Speaking at the
press conference, he said: "Such a hugesurface of uncertified GM
soya is not tolerable due to lack ofmonitoring and control
systems.
I left the company because I expressed my concerns regarding
theintroduction of GM technology in Romania. I believed that
neitherRomania nor the company were ready and able to monitor and
control theGM technology. Unfortunately, the management has not
listened to myconcerns and the situation today shows a total lack
of control over theGM technology."
Mr. Dima left Monsanto in December 1998, while GE soy was
introduced inRomania in 1999."Monsanto knowingly pushed Romania in
a technology that had to lead toa situation out of control.
Romanian farmers and food companies nowhave to suffer the economic
consequences," added Paun.Since their introduction in 1996, GE
crops have contaminated food,feed, seed and the environment right
across the globe.
Worldwide over 100 incidents of illegal or unlabelled GE
contaminationhave been documented in 27 countries on 5 continents -
and thoserepresent only the recorded incidents.
For more information visit
http://www.gmcontaminationregister.org/
Greenpeace is an independent campaigning organisation, which
usesnon-violent, creative confrontation to expose global
environmentalproblems, and to force the solutions that are
essential to a green andpeaceful future.
Other contacts: Gabriel Paun, Greenpeace CEE campaigner in Romania, phone: +40 744 351977Anamaria Bogdan, Greenpeace CEE Media in Romania, phone: +40 0721 632396Susanne Fromwald, Greenpeace CEE scientist in Austria, phone: +43 664 6126706
Notes: (1) The report "A Documentation of Contamination and Illegal GM Soya cultivation in Romania" in Romanian language is based on findings of Greenpeace in August 2005. Analytical results mentioned in the report were done by the Umweltbundesamt, an independent, EU-certified laboratory for polymerase chain reactions, PCRs, in Vienna, Austria. PCR analysis is a genetic test for plants or food to see whether genetic modifications are present in a specific sample.(2) If they want to plant Roundup Ready soya, farmers only need to register with the authorities. It only is considered illegal as if they don't register.