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EU
study on co-existence of GE and non-GE farming
finally published
 BRUSSELS,
BELGIUM, 22 May 2002 - Today the European Commission finally
published the
full text of a report on the co-existence of GE and non-GE
crops in the European Union. On
May 16th, Greenpeace made public parts of the report that
the Commission had tried to keep secret since it was delivered
by the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies of
the EU Joint Research Centre in January 2002.
In a comment
to the press that the EU Commission gave out together with
the report this week they claimed that "there is nothing
secret about the study referred to in the Greenpeace press
release. The version published on their [the Greenpeace] web-site
is a draft ..." However, this is simply not true. The
letters that accompanied the study when it was delivered to
the European Commission in January, and that were obtained
by Greenpeace, clearly state that the study was presented
in its "final version" at that time.
The study
states that farmers who don't want to cultivate GMOs would
face high additional, in some cases unsustainable, costs of
production if genetically engineered (GE) crops were commercially
grown on a large scale in Europe. The study predicts that
the situation would become particularly critical for organic
farming of oilseed rape as well as for intensive production
of conventional maize.
Seed and
crop purity from GE pollution, at a detection level of 0.1
percent, would be virtually impossible in most cases. This
effectively means that all products and seeds of oilseed rape
and maize would be contaminated with GE crops to a certain
extent. Organic farming exempt of GMOs, as we know it today
and as it is defined in the EU Regulations, will be doomed.
These
findings confirm the need for "zero tolerance" for
seed contamination, the standard demanded by Greenpeace and
other organisations.
Sign
a petition to Save our Seeds from genetic contamination.
Further information:
View the
executive summary and conclusions of the report
View
the full May 16 Greenpeace press release
Further
information on the risks of genetic contamination
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