NEWS FROM EUROPE
1.FRANCE: Mayor bans GMOs
2.UK: GM potato trial approved
3.UK: GM fish reports not true
4.WALES: Call for Assembly to sack top adviser
5.GEORGIA: Patriarch speaks out against GM crops
6.BELGIUM: GM poplar trees set to be marketed
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1.FRANCE: The Mayor of Millau band GMOs
Liberation, May 10 2008
[translation: GM Watch]
http://www.liberation.fr/actualite/economie_terre/325611.FR.php
From our correspondent in Toulouse GILBERT LAVAL
The new socialist mayor, who has a doctorate in public law, intends to mow/cut down GMOs in his town. Already there are no pesticides used in the municipal greenhouses and the school canteens serve organic meals. The city is the headquarters of Roquefort cheese, which prohibits GMOs in sheep's milk.
It is from the dismantling of McDonald's in Millau that he developed his opposition to GMOs. Guy Durand put into deliberation an order on 23 May which bans their growth in his jurisdiction. "The constitutional bases of this order are solid," he says.
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2.UK: GM potato trial approved
Leeds University has been given approval to conduct a research trial this year of GM potatoes. The crop will be grown on a test site near Tadcaster.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/north_yorkshire/7393772.stm
Pete Riley, of campaign group GM Freeze, said: "This approval is unwise and unnecessary. We are very concerned that Defra persists in approving applications which contain antibiotic-resistant marker genes involving antibiotics which are still in clinical use. These genes are not needed and should be removed. All in all, it's a bad decision by Defra."
http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/University-given-goahead-for-open.4070514.jp
DEFRA'S consent.
http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/gm/regulation/pdf/07-r31-01.pdf
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3.UK: FISHING FOR GM TROUT
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/letters/article3907963.ece
Your article Gotcha! Anglers rejoice as GM trout prove 'easier to catch' (News, last week) contains misleading references to "GM trout" and "genetically modified fish". To clarify, triploid trout are not recognised as genetically modified organisms (GMO). The process of producing all-female triploid trout involves heat or pressure-shocking of fertilised trout eggs in their early development. The process causes them to retain an extra (third) set of chromosomes per cell and makes them sterile. This is not the same as genetic engineering or genetic modification.
- Dafydd Evans, Head of Fisheries, Environment Agency
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4.WALES: Call for Assembly to sack top adviser
by Steve Dube
Western Mail, May 6 2008
http://tinyurl.com/6olbzo
FIRST Minister Rhodri Morgan is being urged to sack the National Assembly's Chief Scientific Adviser following critical comments by the adviser in a Sunday newspaper.
Professor Chris Pollock, who retired last year as director of the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research in Aberystwyth, told the Observer newspaper last week that it was "perverse" to rule out the cultivation of GM crops.
The campaign group GM Free Cymru has written to the First Minister complaining that the statement is "a clear assault on the Assembly's carefully considered and long-standing commitment to keep GM crops out of Wales".
Group spokesman Dr Brian John said: "This statement from Prof Pollock is a breach of the code by which scientific advisers keep quiet on issues where their opinions differ from those of their employers."
Dr John said Professor Pollock, who was appointed last September, is a well-known proponent of GM technology, and chairman of Defra's pro-GM Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment.
"That involved an obvious conflict of interests, but when we raised this with the First Minister we were assured that Prof Pollock would not seek to challenge the Assembly's opposition to GM crops in any way," said Dr John.
But he drew attention to an Observer article entitled, "As the world begins to starve it's time to take GM seriously", where Prof Pollock was quoted as saying: "To stop widespread starvation, we will either have to plough up the planet's last wild places to grow more food or improve crop yields."
Professor Pollock went on: "GM technology allows farmers to do the latter without digging up rainforests. It is therefore perverse to rule out that technology for no good reason. Yet it still seems some people are willing to do so."
Dr John said the statement was "plainly absurd", since the biggest risks to the planet's wild places come from industrial monocultures involving GM crops.
"GM plantings of soya, maize and canola do not improve yields, and studies show that in areas where GM crops are widely grown yields go down and chemical use goes up," said Dr John.
"Much of the output goes into animal feed and biofuels. What is that scenario going to do for the hungry people of Africa?"
"More to the point, Prof Pollock is effectively saying here that those who 'rule out the technology' including the Welsh Assembly are behaving perversely, since they have 'no good reason' for their opinions and policies.
GM Free Cymru says that given such a calculated criticism of the Welsh Assembly position, Prof Pollock should be invited to either support the Assembly's GM policy on the record, or resign his position.
"If he will do neither he should be sacked, thereby freeing him to say what he likes in the future about the supposed merits of GM crops and foods," said Dr John.
Invited to comment, the First Minister's office made no reply.
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5.GEORGIA: Patriarch speaks out against GM crops
In his Easter sermon, Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia Ilia II spoke out against genetically-modified crops, which he said would have harmful effects for both the environment and people.
"I hope that the government will pay attention to this issue and take measures against this [genetically modified crops], as the agricultural sector needs to be well developed for it to become the basis for the increasing economic sector," the Patriarch said.
He added that developing a GM-free agricultural sector would make Georgian products more popular, given the high demand for organic goods.
Full article: http://www.messenger.com.ge/issues/1599_may_2_2008/1599_econ_one.html
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6.BELGIUM: GMO poplar trees set to be marketed : has the rot already set in before the "Spring of the Environment"?
Greenpeace asks relevant Ministers not to follow the recommendation of the Biosafety Council
http://db.zs-intern.de/uploads/1210076833-GE_Poplars_Belgium.pdf
Brussels, 5th May - Greenpeace is deeply concerned about the favourable recommendation
that has just been issued by the Biosafety Council in the dossier on genetically-modified poplar trees. Greenpeace does not question that field testing carries only a limited risk with the proviso that all precautionary measures be taken. Nevertheless, the risks for the environment and for biodiversity in the event that the trees are marketed would be considerable (1). The environmental organisation thus admonishes the Ministers in charge of the dossier, first and foremost Minister of Environment Magnette, to bear these long-term negative consequences in mind.
Greenpeace asks the Ministers to apply the precautionary principle and not to undertake a course that may lead to the marketing of genetically modified trees. Authorising field testing would be a bad start indeed to the "Spring of the Environment".
It is the VIB, the Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie in Ghent that has submitted the request for the field testing of genetically-modified poplar trees to produce less lignin and aid the demand for agrofuels, often times put forward as the solution to the problem of climate changes. The Biosafety Council has put in its request and the dossier is now in the hands of Ministers Magnette and Onkelinx at Federal level and Minister Crevits at regional level.
Greenpeace believes that the Ministers should oppose this field testing. Indeed, field testing is the first step in a process that leads to large-scale marketing. The introduction of genetically-modified trees in the environment poses considerable risk. Poplar trees reproduce sexually and vegetatively, which means that just a piece of branch or root can create a whole tree. If marketed, there is the inevitable risk of contamination, i.e. the gene flow and transfer of the trait from plantation trees to their wild related species. This transfer can thus be a threat to the poplars in our regions. What is more, given the essential role of lignin in wood (2), the weakening of natural species on account of lower lignin content is a cause for worry. It would appear that biotechnology was a foregone conclusion without assessing whether it was needed or what it would contribute: "Poplar trees are being modified so as to reduce their lignin content. And yet it has been shown in scientific articles that there is big natural variation of lignin in the trees (3)" says Natacha Adam, from Greenpeace´s Sustainable Agriculture campaign, "An alternative to genetic modification, such as natural cross-breeding, does not seem to have been examined." The VIB supports field testing for the sake of the fight against climate change, and the poplar trees will be for the production of bioethanol. "If we want to act against climate change, we must first do something about our consumption patterns and reduce the amount of kilometres travelled", concludes Natacha Adam, "Let us not replace one environmental problem by another."
Greenpeace is not opposed to scientific research, but it seriously questions the dissemination of genetically-modified organisms into the environment, also in the form of field testing. In the specific case of poplar trees, the objective of the experimentation (and the ensuing marketing) will not result in an improvement for the whole of society. Anything aiming to authorise marketing in the future will take us further and further away from an environmentally-friendly, sustainable agriculture that does not worsen climate change.
Greenpeace hopes that the Ministers will consider these elements as well when they will have to judge whether it is a good idea to authorise this field testing. If the Ministers authorise this field test, this authorisation would create a precedent, since no field test has been authorised in Belgium since 2002. In two weeks, the partners to the Convention on Biodiversity are meeting in Bonn. The discusion in Bonn will a.o. Focus on transgenic trees.
The European Parliament voted on 24th April a resolution demanding a moratorium on the release of transgenic trees, including field trials (4). Authorising field testing in Ghent, a few days before Magnette's launch of the Spring of the Environment´s workshops on consumption and biodiversity, shows a lack of consistency and is tantamount to undermining the event's very foundations. Greenpeace should like to recall that, just like other environmental organisations, it put forward its objections during the public consultation (5).
For more information:
Natacha Adam, Sustainable Agriculture / GMOs campaigner 0496/127.008
Marc-Olivier Herman, Campaign Director 0478/288.047
Footnotes
1) The Biosafety Council mentions that the recommendation is valid under the strict conditions of the field trials and not in case of commercialisation.
2) http://www.bio-conseil.be/bac_advices.html
3) Lignin, along with cellulose, is one of wood´s main components. It is indicative of a tree's
cellular structure. It gives trees more solidity and provides the plant with a protective barrier against microbial attack.
4) Talukder, K., Low-lignin wood-a case-study, Nat. Biotechnol., vol.24, n°4, Pg 395- 396(2006)
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+TA+P6-TA-2008-
0179+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN
5) Text of Greenpeace´s complaint (French and dutch) available on
http://www.greenpeace.org/belgium/assets/binaries/gp_populier_bezwaarschrift
http://www.greenpeace.org/belgium/assets/binaries/gp_peuplier_plainte
Veerle Dossche
Forest Campaigner
asbl Greenpeace Belgium vzw
Chaussée de Haecht 159 Haachtsesteenweg
Bruxelles 1030 Brussel
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