CATALONIA says NO to GMOs

More than 91,00 citizens request a GMO FREE CATALONIA

The President of the catalan Parliament Ernest Benach receives the members of the "Som lo que Sembrem"    campaign for a GMO FREE CATALONIA

The people of Catalonia do not approve genetically modified organisms (GMOs). On 30th July, more than 91,00 signatures against GMOs were delivered to the catalan Parliament and it is expected that in the following days, until the 21st August, official date for the end of the campaign, close to 100,000 signatures will be gathered.

Today's acts were a short press conference, a meeting with the President of the catalan Parliament, Ernest Benach, and the delivery of these 91,000 signatures. Some cobs of an ecological catalan corn variety have been offered to the President, as a symbol of transgenic contamination and the impossibility of coexistence of the two kinds of crops (the GMO one and the ecological or local one).

Then the signatures have to be validated by the Catalan Statistics Institute (IDESCAT) and afterwards, by the end of October, the proposed law will enter the parliamentary procedure, with the presentation of motions and the debate of the law. After that, with the agreement of the platform, a final debate in the Parliament will take place at the beginning of January.

In September, the platform will initiate contacts with all the parliamentary groups, to know the position of each one and also to deliver them documents and any other requested information.

Evaluating the campaign

The platform wants to let everyone know his evaluation of the campaign of gathering of signatures until today.

1. We evaluate as very positive the support of the citizens. This has made possible that we gathered a number of signatures almost the double of was requested for the law to be discussed in the Parliament.

2. We understand that these 91,000 signatures gathered until today are a very representative sample of the catalan people and are a democratic expression of a general rejection to GMOs, very different from the not quite democratic practices by the GMO multinational companies.

3 We request the Catalan government to consider the people's will, and we point out the fact that there is an important and growing amount of aware consumers who reject GMOs and want another agricultural and food system.

4. We expect to collect up to 100,000 signatures during the following days. We have still 2,500 that have not been delivered today.

5. We emphasize the awesome response the Catalan society has given to this campaign against GMOs, which was amazing for the platform.

6. We value also the information campaign that has taken place, which has made possible to open the debate, not only about GMOs, but also about the whole agricultural and food model, and about possible harms of these technologies on people's health.

7. We provide to everyone interested documents, research, articles and bibliography about the consequences of GMOs on health, society and economy, agriculture and the environment.
 http://www.somloquesembrem.org/index2.php?actual=11
http://www.somloquesembrem.org/index3.php?actual=11&actual2=34


Platform members in front of Parliament with boxes of signatures

The boxes with 91.000 signatures

Platform representatives with the President of Catalan Parliament, Ernest Benach

SOM LO QUE SEMBREM
c/ Lleida, 1 baixos
Balaguer (la Noguera)
25600 Països Catalans
+34 973450683 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
www.somloquesembrem.org

More press information:
http://www.parlament.cat/portal/page/portal/pcat/IE04/IE0404?p_format=D&p_id=15916231
http://www.catradio.cat/reproductor/audio.htm?ID=269670
http://www.3cat24.cat/noticia/298946/catalunya/Som-lo-que-Sembrem-reclama-una-Catalunya-sense-transgenics
http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2008/07/30/barcelona/1217408912.html
http://www.vilaweb.cat/www/noticia?p_idcmp=2951104