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GE crops take a double hit

Tougher EU GMO regulations mean consumers will know what they are eating. Enlarge Image

Tougher EU GMO legislation

The European Parliament has adopted the world's toughest rules on the labelling of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), despite intensified pressure from the US and the GE industry. The new rules bring great news for EU consumers, farmers and food producers - all food and animal feed containing GMOs must now be clearly labelled. (In the US and Canada all such freedom and information is currently denied.) It will also now be possible to trace products from the field to the fork.

EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy receives from Greenpeace Italy Genetic Engineering campaigner Federica Ferrario sacks of soy contaminated with genetically engineered (GE) varieties by the US-multinational GE company Monsanto. Enlarge Image

EU, don't cave in to US GMO agenda!

We gave two sacks of soy contaminated with Monsanto's genetically engineered (GE) varieties to Pascal Lamy (EU Trade Commissioner) and asked him to send them back to his US counterpart, Robert Zoellick. The right to say no to genetically engineered (GE) food should be available not just to Europeans, but to everyone around the world. We urge the EU to stand strong at the WTO meeting in Cancun in September, and not cave in to US pressure on genetically modified organisms (GMOs). GMOs are a biosafety issue, not a trade issue.

Greenpeace marks a maize field with signs showing corn with a 'question mark' indicating that 1 in 200 maize crops can be genetically contaminated if the draft EU seed directive is passed . Enlarge Image

Italian seeds contaminated with GE maize

Over 100 farmers in Northern Italy have discovered that non-genetically engineered (GE) maize seeds that they bought and planted, were in fact contaminated by GE maize. The fact that cases like this are happening on a regular basis, raises serious questions - such as how are the seeds getting contaminated in the first place? Is it part of a deliberate strategy by companies selling GE seeds?

Greenpeace volunteers dressed as Uncle Sam dump GE maize on other volunteers representing consumers in straitjackets, suffocating their demand for the right to say no GE food. Enlarge Image

WTO = World Transgenic Order

Greenpeace activists replaced the World Trade Organisation (WTO) sign at its headquarters in Geneva with a new logo, "World Transgenic Order", denouncing the WTO for promoting the corporate interests of the genetic engineering (GE) industry.

Greenpeace activists dressed as security guards confiscate a bag of genetically modified organisms from 'George Bush'. Enlarge Image

WTO free zone

Greenpeace cordoned off the UN building in Montreal, to protect it from the US attack on consumers, farmers and the environment. Activists at the Greenpeace checkpoint were on the lookout for representatives of the US administration and Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, who are trying to undermine countries' rights to reject or ban genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

Action against GM maize in Spain, August 2003 Enlarge Image

GM crops flunk the test

The debate on Genetically Modified (GM) crops is often a polarised one with environmentalists and the majority of sceptical consumers against the crops and powerful corporate interests attempting to steamroller all opposition. Now those companies may be in for a serious setback, as scientific tests devised by the UK Government and GM companies look set to say that GM crops are environmentally unsafe.

Greenpeace activists paint a giant 'X' and the letters 'GMOs' on the hull of the MV Poseidon, a bulk-carrier transporting genetically engineered (GE) soy from Argentina to Thailand. Enlarge Image

GE soya dumping exposed in Thailand

Our activists have deployed two inflatables off the port of Srichang Island in Thailand to label the large cargo ship MV Poseidon by painting a giant "X" and the letters "GMOs" on the side of the ship, exposing that Thailand has become the dumping ground of genetically engineered (GE) soya from the US and Argentina. A cordon of flags declaring "Stop GMO Dumping" in front of the ship to marked it as a quarantine zone.

Greenpeace volunteers dressed as Uncle Sam dump GE maize on other volunteers representing consumers in straitjackets, suffocating their demand for the right to say no GE food. Enlarge Image

US threatens EU over GE labelling laws

In a letter to US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick this week, a collected front of 22 US agribusiness lobby groups and organized farm interests called on Washington to "take every possible action" against coming EU rules on labelling and traceability of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), including to open another World Trade Organisation (WTO) case against European GM policy.

We protested against GE maize in 1999 - 5 years later Bayer withdraws the crop from the UK. Enlarge Image

GM setback in UK

Following the controversial UK government approval of genetically engineered (GE) maize for commercial planting, the only company authorized to grow GE maize has withdrawn its application. It now appears unlikely the UK will see any commercialised GE crops before 2008.

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Dig deeper: Full analysis of the UK results. Editorial by the former advisor to the UK Environment Minister and current head of Greenpeace in the UK, Stephen Tindale. Elsewhere: Giant chickens demand GM-free feed in Australia. Thirty five thousand people on the streets to maintain the GE moritorium in New Zealand.