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Right to remain GE-free overrides WTO ruling

A Hani farmer is holding his traditional rice seeds in his hand, Yunnan Province, China. Enlarge Image

Say no to genetic engineering

While scientific progress on molecular biology has a great potential to increase our understanding of nature and provide new medical tools, it should not be used as justification to turn the environment into a giant genetic experiment by commercial interests. The biodiversity and environmental integrity of the world's food supply is too important to our survival to be put at risk.

Food

Genetically engineering of the food we eat is an inherently risky process. Current understanding of genetics is extremely limited and scientists do not know the long-term effects of releasing these unpredictable organisms into the environment and people's diets.

Bolivians with their home grown potatoes. Enlarge Image

Feeding the world - facts versus fiction

Most hungry people live in countries that have food surpluses rather than deficits. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), we are already producing one and a half times the amount of food needed to provide everyone in the world with an adequate and nutritious diet, yet one in seven people is suffering from hunger.

Greenpeace Thai activists seal off the GE papaya at the Khon Kaen agricultural research station of the Department of Agriculture. Enlarge Image

GE agriculture and genetic pollution

The introduction of genetically engineered (GE) organisms into the complex ecosystems of our environment is a dangerous global experiment with nature and evolution.

Greenpeace activists today occupy the cranes of the "Winner" to prevent its cargo of GMO soya from Argentina, reaching Spain. In the foreground Hungarian activist Atilla Soos. Enlarge Image

Biosafety protocol

The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety is the first international agreement to regulate the transboundary movements of genetically engineered (GE) organisms. The Biosafety Protocol is a subsidiary agreement to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which was signed by over 150 governments at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, the Protocol itself was agreed in Montreal in January 2000 and came into force September 11, 2003. Now 100 countries have signed up.

Action against GM maize in Spain, August 2003 Enlarge Image

Failings of GE

2003 marked the 50th anniversary of the discovery of the structure of DNA. This highlighted the fact that many fundamental questions regarding the functioning of DNA and genes remain unanswered. Modern science has shown the mechanisms and controls of gene expression to be far more complex than first thought.

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