Greenpeace Keeps Genetically Engineered Corn Behind Locked Doors

["greenbase" <greenbas@gb.greenpeace.org>]

 GREENPEACE KEEPS GENETICALLY ENGINEERED CORN BEHIND 
LOCKED DOORS AS CRACKS APPEAR IN  EUROPEAN DECISION

14 February, 1997 -- Forty-eight hours after France anounced a
ban on the growing of GE corn, Greenpeace activists today
chained themselves to storage facilities in a French harbour
in order to prevent thousands of tons of the genetically
contaminated corn being released into the environment.

The corn -- destined for animal feed --  has been in storage 
since December, when Greenpeace held up its original delivery
at the docks at St. Nazaire in the West of France. Thirty-five
activists , from France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and
Switzerland, are now preventing it from leaving the dock area.
Some have chained themselves to the doors of the warehouse and
have hung banners in French and English expressing opposition
to geneticallly engineered food.

"This corn should not be going anywhere," said Greenpeace
campaigner Michelle Sheather. "The European Commission may
have given its approval -- but that decision is now in
tatters. Not only  has it been officially challenged by
European member states but even France, which originally
proposed the corn for approval, has now changed its mind.."

On Wednesday the French Government said it would not allow its
farmers to raise GE corn crops, although importing the corn
remains legal. Greenpeace called on the French government --
and other European countries -- to also ban its import.

Although 13 European Union states opposed allowing GE corn
into Europe, the European Commission bowed to US threats of a
trade war and officially approved it three weeks ago. In an
unprecedented challenge to the Commission's power, Austria and
Luxembourg then imposed national import bans. Luxembourgh said
say that the findings of the three scientific committees
consulted by the Commission "are not sufficiently conclusive
to rule out all harmful effects on human health and the
environment," and have forced the Commission to reconsider its
decision.

Luxembourg's Environment Minister said the incorporation into
the transgenic maize of a gene increasing resistance to the
antibiotic Ampicillin "may have implications for human health"
which the committees did not correctly assess.

Protests are coming from all sides. EuroCoop (European
Community of Consumer Cooperatives), said in a statement last
week  that  "the approval system of the genetically-modified
maize should have been more strict and the precautionary
principle should have been a key element in the judgement of 
safety risk, no matter how small that risk may be."

EuroCoop has also backed Greenpeace's contention that the
label "may contain GMOs" as proposed by the Commission, is
inadequate. It has called for a "separation" of genetically-
modified maize, raw materials as well as their derivatives,
from conventional maize and strongly criticises firms which
have refused to segregate the two.


      ends

Footage and pictures from today's action available from
Greenpeace France: tel 00  33 1 5343 8585

For further information contact:
James Gillies, Press Officer, Greenpeace International, 
Amsterdam , tel (00 31 20) 524 9540 Laurence Mermet, Press
Officer, Greenpeace France, St. Nazaire, mobile tel (00 33) 6
0757 3160