Brussels, 08/05/2014 (Agence Europe) - Stop the cultivation of GMOs in Spain, which is threatening organic farming in Europe: that was the call made by an alliance of Spanish farmers and environmentalists on Wednesday 7 May, under “Food And Water Europe”. They are calling for a radical change in the EU policy on GM cultivation, thereby supporting the results of the survey published in Europe on Wednesday, having been previously published in the United States, highlighting the devastating effects GM crops have had on organic crops across the Atlantic.
This study, entitled “Organic Farmers pay the Price for GMO Contamination”, shows that American organic crops have been largely contaminated by GMOs - proof, the NGOs argue, that the rules on the coexistence between conventional and organic crops and GM crops are not working. This is a wake-up call to Spain, the only member state of the EU currently growing GM crops on a large-scale (MON 810 maize by Monsanto).
“The situation in the US should be a clear warning to Spain and the rest of the EU not to make the same mistakes. So-called coexistence as promoted by the GM industry is simply impossible, as farmers in both the US and Spain already know”, said David Sanchez, a member of Food And Water Europe. “Farmers in Spain are already facing the same insecurity and lack of legal protection as US colleagues, even though there is only one GM crop approved in the EU. Preventive measures and their costs should not be carried by the farmers that choose not to grow GMOs”, added Andoni Garcia Arriola, a member of COAG (Spanish Coordination of Farmers)
According to this study, the costs of the preventative measures to contain GMOs (for instance, buffer zones, delaying sowing or carrying out analysis to identify possible contamination) could be as high as €6,119 a year (8,500 US dollars) per farm; - one out of three farmers who responded to the survey has dealt with GM contamination on their farm, with a reported median cost of €3,240 (4,500 US dollars). And more than half of these farmers have experienced their purchasers shunning their products; some reported abandoning their crops or strained relations with their neighbours.
The alliance's call comes as the European Union decision-makers are soon to take position on the legislative proposal which would allow the member states to limit or restrict the cultivation on their territory of GMOs authorised at European level, for reasons other than health or environmental ones. A political agreement in the Council is anticipated for June on the draft regulation of July 2010 aiming to amend directive 2001/18/EC correspondingly.
The survey is available online:
http://documents.foodandwaterwatch.org/doc/GMO_ contamination.pdf (AN)