24
November 2008 - Brussels, Belgium — European
Environment Ministers were asked to agree
on strict controls ensuring food safety
today, by our activists in Brussels. A giant
banner displaying a ‘scary’ genetically
modified corn plant and bearing the slogan
Stop GMOs’ was dropped from a building on
Schuman square (at the quarter of European
Commission and European Council buildings)
as dozens GM maize caricatures were laid
around the street - highlighting the risks
posed by genetically modified organisms
such as maize.
The European Food Safety
Authority (EFSA) runs inadequate safety
checks on GMOs and just rubber stamps whatever
the agro-chemical industry puts on the table.
This process ignores the serious and unpredictable
risks to human health and the environment.
The current risk assessment
process contravenes EU law because it does
not, among the other things, consider long-term
impacts of GM crops. Recently the Austrian
government commissioned a scientific study
on the effects of a GM maize (to which EFSA
gave the green light). The study revealed
that the fertility of mice fed this type
of maize was severely impaired compared
with mice fed non-GM maize. This maize is
authorised to enter the EU market to be
used mainly in animal feed.
A safe decision needs
to be made
On the 4th of December
they have the chance to turn it around.
The Ministers will be meeting to decide
how to reform the EU authorization system
of GMOs.
We're asking them to:
Strengthen the risk
assessment process and reform the EFSA
Suspend all GM crop authorisations until
the risk assessment process and the EFSA
is thoroughly improved and equipped to assess
long term impacts of GMO crops
Prevent GMO contamination of seeds
Protect the right of member stated to establish
GM-free areas
Ban all GM maize varieties
We are urging the EU to keep our food safe.
Learn more about GMO’s in Europe.
The jury is out - GMOs
are not worth the risk
GMOs are heavily promoted by the agro-biotech
industry as the answer to the so-called
food crisis. But existing non-GM farming
methods can make a real difference in the
developing world while at the same time
being sustainable and not threatening the
environment or human health. The most significant
cause of starvation is not due to the lack
of food production but the ineffective distribution
of food and the way it is traded.
In contrast GMOs actually pose a major threat
to food security due to their adverse effects
on biodiversity, their continuous contamination
of conventional crops and the monopoly of
the global seeds market by big biotech corporations
like Monsanto. There is growing scientific
evidence of the health and environmental
impacts of genetically modified crops. In
addition to the recent Austrian study, several
other recently published peer-reviewed studies
point to numerous unexpected effects of
GM cultivation.
Who is trying to block the reform and spread
GMOs in Europe?
Some Ministers are already on our side (Austria,
Hungary, Greece, Luxembourg, France, Italy,
Cyprus, Poland and Lithuania) but many are
still sitting on the fence (Belgium, Bulgaria,
Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Latvia,
Malta, Slovakia). There is also a small
but powerful group of countries willing
to block any meaningful reform (United Kingdom,
Sweden, the Netherlands, Czech Republic,
Estonia, Finland, Portugal, Romania, Spain.)
Meanwhile, the European Commission's President
Barroso is actively pushing behind closed
doors Member States to spread GMOs in the
EU.
There is a serious risk
that ministers will agree only on minor
'cosmetic' changes to the current assessment
process. We can't afford to let this happen.
The EU must ensure food safety and security
by agreeing on tight controls.
+ More
Polish mine workers
attack peaceful Greenpeace protest
24 November 2008 - Konin,
Poland — Peaceful protesters from the Greenpeace
Climate Rescue Station were attacked by
mine workers when they entered the vast
Józwin IIB open pit mine. As the
activists prepared to paint a huge "Stop"
sign next to a giant excavator they were
assaulted and prevented from carrying out
their peaceful protest. A journalist accompanying
the activists was beaten. Local people are
also against the expansion of this mine,
because it threatens their homes and livelihoods.
"Our action is
not against the miners but it is addressed
to the Polish government. We demand that
the forthcoming Polish energy policy contain
a concrete plan for quitting coal and implementing
renewable energy and energy efficiency.
We also object to opening any new power
plants working for lignite. Lignite is the
most destructive fuel," says Magdalena
Zowsik, Climate and Energy Campaigner in
Poland.
The activists at the
mine are part of the Greenpeace Climate
Rescue Station, which was set up two weeks
ago at the edge of the mine to bear witness
to the destruction and environmental devastation
caused by coal. Just last week 400 members
of local communities whose homes and livelihoods
are threatened by the mine joined us in
a peaceful protest.
More then 90 percent
of energy in Poland is produced by burning
coal, but it doesn’t have to be that way.
The Greenpeace Energy [R]evolution scenario
for Poland shows how Poland can make the
transition to generating 80 percent of its
power using renewable sources. That would
mean an end to the destructive mining and
devastated countryside that scars Poland.
It would also mean Poland would cease to
be one of the twenty largest emitters of
CO2 in the world.
Poland’s addiction to coal doesn’t just
harm its environment, it also drives its
role in international talks. With the EU
just days away form sealing a deal on a
response to climate change Poland is actively
trying to water down the package so it can
carry on polluting. With Poland also due
to host the UN Climate Negotiations on December
1 it is essential that Poland adopts a progressive
attitude toward the talks and make itself
part of the solution.
"Poland and the
world need an energy revolution, not more
of the same," adds Zowsik. "The
science is unequivocal, if we try to continue
burning coal we will do untold damage to
the planet."
In Poznan, Greenpeace
wants to see governments agree a "climate
vision" that will address what the
science requires: global emissions peaking
by 2015. We want to see developed countries
agree to targets of 25-40 percent cuts,
along with a draft negotiating text on the
table and a detailed workplan to get this
completed by the time the next round of
climate talks begin in Copenhagen in December
2009.
