1.Polish farmers want to grow own non-GM feed
2.GM-free Ireland's GM fact file
3.EU ministers meet in GMO-free Ã…re in Sweden
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1.Polish farmers want to grow non-GM feed

Polish farmers of the Podkarpacki region in south-east Poland want to grow legumes such as fava beans, beans, non-GM soy, lentil, lupine etc for animal feed. The Ministry of Agriculture is currently considering subsidizing this kind of production.

Like German farmers, Polish farmers are hoping that increased production of legumes to counterbalance to some extent the use of GM soy meal in animal feed. The price of GM soy meal has recently increased, although it is still lower than the price of cnventional soy, so growing non-GM legumes may be a sustainable solution to the animal feed problem.

After: Pierwszy Portal Rolny www.ppr.pl
July 15 2009
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2.GM-free Ireland's GM fact file
http://www.gmfreeireland.org/news/index.php

*All 27 EU member states have unanimously condemned the European Food Safety Authority for its on-going and repeated failure to implement EU law by implementing credible, transparent, peer-reviewed risk assessments of GMOs.

*The documented health dangers of GM food and GM animal feed include initial signs of chronic diseases such as cancers, hormonal disruptions, immune, nervous or reproductive deficiencies, among others.

*GM crops inevitably contaminate farmers who are then subjected to Monsanto's extortion letters (http://www.gmfreeireland.org/conference/trans/exhibits/MonExtortion.pdf) and patent infringement lawsuits (http://www.gmfreeireland.org/conference/trans/P.Schmeiser.pdf). Contaminated organic farmers and food producers lose their certification and are forced out of business.

*Farmers and food producers who use or are contaminated by GMOs are effectively shut out of the European food market, as there is virtually no market for GM-labelled food in Europe.

*Farmers who still use GM animal feed increasingly find their meat, poultry, fish and dairy produce excluded from the top quality food range sold by Europe's major retailers and leading food brands.

*The introduction of GM crops has contaminated non-GM crops around the world, temporarily shut down food exports from the USA and China, and caused the US rice industry over a billion dollars in lost revenues.

*The introduction of Monsanto's "Roundup-ready" herbicide-resistant GM crops has vastly increased the spraying of this toxic weedkiller which is a known reprotoxic and endocrine disruptor, endangering the health of millions of people, including pregnant women and children, in GM crop-growing countries.

*The introduction of pesticide-producing GM crops has impacted on non-target organisms including important soil bacteria and beneficial insects.

*Europeans do not now and never will accept GM-labelled food, and when given the choice also reject meat, poultry, fish and dairy produce from animals fed on GM feed.
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3.EU ministers meet in GMO-free Ã…re in Sweden

On 24 and 25 July 2009, the EU ministers for the environment will meet in Ã…re kommun. It is one of the first GMO-free municipalities in Sweden.

The municipal executive committee in Ã…re has made a decision to make the municipally a GMO-free zone in April this year, after receiving the demand from a wide range of groups like the Centre Party's women's group, the Left Party, the United Nations Associations in Ã…re, the local group for the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation and Greener Ã…re network.

Ã…re is one of the municipalities in Jämtland County. The County Administrative Board has been working towards its 16 environmental goals, including making the County a GMO-free zone. Sweden's very first GMO-free zone was Östersund kommun, which is also situated in Jamtland. The County Council has declared themselves as a GMO-free zone. Härjedalen kommun and Krokom kommun also got similar motions. These are not controversial decisions, the political parties all agree. In addition, farmers groups in the County, both conventional and organic as well as small scale family farmers, have also made a common decision to not to use GMOs.

The problem so far has been that the EU does not approve GMO-free zones, they accept only if a country applies for not to cultivate a GM crop with reference to scientific research results. However, in December last year, the EU environmental ministers agreed on allowing the member states to establish GMO-free zones. The ministers also agreed on to improve evaluation of the medium and long-term environmental impacts of GM crops, in particular of pesticide-producing and herbicide-resistant GM crops, to consider socio-economic implications of placing GMOs on the market, to improve the use of member states experts for safety evaluation of GMOs as well as to fix Community thresholds for the presence of GMOs in conventional seeds. We hope that our environment ministers of the EU will work for their own demands and make sure not to approve further GMOs until everything is in place.

Today, 99% of the GMO crops in the market are either genetically modified to tolerate weed-killing chemicals or to produce a toxin to kill butterfly larvae. Genetic engineering scientists promote GMO by saying it will solve key problems, e.g. potato mildew, drying problems and world hunger, in order to gain acceptance of research, but despite the fact that such research has been conducted since the 60's, these problems are not resolved. World hunger can only be solved by the benefits of the earth's resources in a better way.

To declare GMO-free zones is important decisions, it shows to decision makers that people do not believe that more chemicals provides better food, that patents on life should not happen, that farmers do not want to be dependent on the big chemical companies, that consumers do not accept antibiotics resistant genes to be used in our food and that biological diversity is extremely important.

Europe should become a GMO-free organic farming zone, where all types of food can be produced.

EU ministers, welcome to the GMO-free Ã…re in Sweden!

Liv Ekerwald

*Liv Ekerwald is a farmer and an environmental activist in Jämtland. She is one of 47 contact persons for Campaign for a GMO-free Sweden, Hej DÃ¥ GMO!
http://hejdagmo.se/gmo-lokalt-har/

Read more about the EU environmental ministers meeting: http://www.se2009.eu/en/meetings_news/2009/7/24/informal_meeting_of_environment_ ministers