Greenpeace calls on UN biosafety conference to make: “genetic polluters pay”

At the meeting Greenpeace will release a briefing paper that draws on the most recent GE global contamination scandals, involving an illegal GE maize variety from Syngenta (2), and GE rice from Bayer (3).  The paper highlights the general lack of access of government authorities to information about both experimental and commercially available GE crops.

“Genetic Engineering companies indiscriminately pollute the world’s food and seed supplies, and natural environments with their wandering genes” said Jan van Aken, Greenpeace International agriculture campaigner.  “They refuse to provide governments with the necessary information to detect those genes.  And they are doing everything they can, including blaming God (4), to shirk responsibility. Governments must stand up to this – genetic polluters must pay!”

In addition to liability and redress, governments at the meeting will negotiate on several other controversial political issues, including sharing of information and harmonisation of methods to detect illegal international movements of GE organisms.

To facilitate detection and clean-up, and to prevent the highest risk organisms from contaminating food supplies in the first place, Greenpeace demands governments ensure that sequence information and reference material for all genetically engineered plants on the global market is made available to all regulatory authorities worldwide.

“The companies shouting the loudest that GE is safe are also those fighting the hardest to avoid liability for their dangerous products.  GE companies want to take no responsibility for their unproven technology. GE crops pose an unacceptable risk to human health and the environment. Last week’s decision by the EU Commission to send three new types of GE crops back to the European Food Safety Authority shows that Europe’s most senior lawmakers are starting to make the right decisions. But much more must be done" concluded van Aken.
ENDS