Our activists in Sweden are keeping up the fight against genetic contamination. Two weeks ago they blocked the warehouse of the chemical company BASF holding its genetically modified (GM) Amflora potato. This morning we stopped a tractor to prevent the Amflora potato from being planted. It was a short lived activity as this tractor, and its dubious potato planting, had a police escort who moved quickly to arrest the activists.
The approval of Amflora breaches EU law, as the potato contains an antibiotic resistance gene. This gene can potentially be transferred to bacteria which can cause tuberculoses. The result is that people suffering from tuberculosis can no longer be cured with antibiotics. That’s why we’re calling on the Swedish government to join other countries in banning Amflora. We are also demanding a withdrawal of the approval from the European Commission.
BASF claims that their potato is for industrial use only. But, reality shows that Amflora last year received an approval from the European Commission for cultivation, processing, use as feed and even for use in food of up to 0.9%. In other words, Amflora has approval to contaminate the food chain.
Other European countries like Austria, Greece, Hungary and Luxembourg have already banned the Amflora on their territory. Hungary, together with other Member States, has even filed a law case against the European Commission to get the approval withdrawn. “The Commission rubberstamped the approval of risky Amflora and the Swedish government did nothing but watch. So if they do not act, we have to act”, says Ludvig Tillman at Greenpeace Sweden.
In short: what we see happening here is that the financial interests of a company like BASF being ranked higher than the health interests of the European public who by a large majority reject the cultivation of GMOs.
We need YOUR help now.
TAKE ACTION! Please ask the Swedish government to ban the cultivation of Amflora - just like other European countries already have.
Check out the contamination debacle BASF was responsible for last year in Sweden.