NOTE: Pictures and article in Spanish here: http://www.tierra.org/spip/spip.php?article1035
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15,000 people demonstrate in Madrid "for a GMO-Free Food and Agriculture"
infOMG, 20 April 2010
http://www.infomg.ro/web/en/Home/News/3/762

Source: Friends of the Earth Spain

15,000 people have gathered this morning in Madrid under the slogan "For a Food and GE Free Agriculture." Farmers, environmentalists and consumers around the country have toured the city demanding the Government to follow the same path followed by countries like France, Germany or Austria, and ban the cultivation of GM maize in Spain.

Spain is the only EU country that grows GM a large scale. Last year, 76,000 hectares were planted with genetically modified maize in Spain. This cultivation is carried out under an absolute lack of transparency and control, with numerous cases of contamination of crops and foods. Still, the government is ignoring their social and environmental impacts, and health consequences that have led other countries to ban it.
We are in the Spanish half of the EU Presidency and the Government has, if anything, even more responsibility to drive another model of food and agriculture. However, when the European Commission approved a few weeks ago the cultivation of a transgenic potato, Spain was one of the few countries that supported this decision.

The demonstration is the central act of a week of action against GMOs, with dozens of protests, debates and information campaigns throughout the country. The convening organizations consider that this mobilization is a clear and forceful demand the Government to act in defense of the environment, agriculture and consumer rights, and prohibit the cultivation of GM crops in the Spanish State.

The demonstration was called by PLATFORM RURAL (Friends of the Earth, Spanish Caritas, Collective Action for Development, Confederation of Consumers and Users (CECU) CERAI, CIC BATA, CIFAES, Coordinator of Organizations of Farmers and Cattlemen (COAG), Collective Tierra de Campos, Ecologists in Action, Entrepueblos, Emmaus Foundation, Christian Rural Youth, Rural Movement Christian, MUNDUBAT, Red Africa Europe, Spanish Society of Organic Agriculture (SEAE), SOC, SODEPAZ, Paulo Freire Rural University, Veterinarians Without Borders, Xarxa Consum Solidari, ACSUD The Segovias País Valencià) and GREENPEACE, CC.OO supported by the Spanish Federation of Mothers and Fathers of Students (APEC) and the Youth Council of Spain, among many other organizations.