NOTE: Thanks to GMWatch's German translators for getting this information from these two German sources: http://www.szon.de/lokales/ulm/ulm/200909140169.html and http://www.swr.de/nachrichten/bw/-/id=1622/nid=1622/did=5361412/2x3nv/
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Big anti-GM protest in Germany
Thousands of protesters took to the streets against GM yesterday (Sunday, Sept. 13), in the southern German town of Ulm (in the state of Baden-Wurttemberg). The protest kicked of with a tractor demonstration involving 120 vehicles. The event was themed "Diversity feeds the world" and included a huge GM-free food festival.
The protesters called for a ban of GMOs in farming in Germany, for both cultivation and feed. They argued that the recently found GM-contaminated linseed showed yet again that coexistence is impossible and they demanded from state agriculture minister to support for sustainable GM-free and small-scale agriculture.
Furthermore, a new survey was made public, according to which 65% of German citizens, and as much as 70% in Baden-Wurttemberg, are against GM. Only 14% of the public agree that tax money should be spent on GM even for research purposes.
At a panel discussion, federal Agriculture Minister Annette Schavan had a hard time in her constituency when she defended the commitment of the federal government to GM crops, which she called "a future technology, which Germany and the EU must not ignore". To know about its potential, research was needed, she said. She also cited the ISAAA figures regarding the supposed worldwide area and adoption of GM.
Most of the audience as well as representatives of other attending political Parties (SPD, Greens and Left) countered her arguments. Aldo Gonzales described the pressure on Mexico by US agro-corporations with regard to corn, while Swiss Professor Hans Herren of the World Future Council reported on the dangers of GMOs.
The event was supported by various associations of family farmers and organic farmers, GM-free Europe, and the Baden-Württemberg chapters of NABU (Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union) and BUND (Friends of the Earth Germany).