Round two gets underway in the fight to cultivate transgenic crops in northern Italy
While the agricultural association Futuragra threatens illegal new planting of GMO corn, many Regions are passing laws against transgenic crops
Genetic Rights Foundation
Edited by Nicoletta De Cillis and Simona Galasso
http://bit.ly/echq27

March 14, 2011    - Round two in northern Italy in the fight to cultivate genetically modified crops. Giorgio Fidenato, the secretary of "Futuragra" a small growers' association in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region, last year planted some MON810 corn seeds (for which court proceedings have been started against him). Now he is once again threatening to do the same. Together with other growers, he has promised in the next few weeks to plant transgenic corn in the belief that the Italian law cannot enforce a ban on seeds which have been authorised by the European Union.

His threat comes at a time when the Friuli region is adopting an anti-GMO law: the cultivation of genetically modified plants will indeed be possible only for experimental ends and in controlled conditions so as to prevent the release and spread of GMOs and the consequent contamination of conventional and organic crops.

The regions of Tuscany, Valle d'Aosta and Veneto are also preparing to adopt regulations against open field cultivation of GMO. In Veneto, in particular, whose regional President is Luca Zaia - the former Minister of Agriculture and declared opponent of transgenic cultivation- the dream of GMO-free agriculture is pursued by the Lega Nord (The Northern League). According to Nicola Finco, the first signatory of the proposal," the act seeks to fill the legislative gap in this matter, providing an extra weapon to Councils, and to avoid the repetition of episodes similar to that in Friuli where there are people freely cultivating GMOs.

The matter now rests with Giancarlo Galan, the Minister of Agriculture, who unlike his predecessor has an open mind on transgenic cultivation. Six months on from the request of all the regional Presidents (with the single abstention of Lombardy) to declare Italian territory GMO-free and to invoke the safeguard clause against transgenic cultivation, he has still to reply.