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Canadians are joining regions, communities and countries around the world in declaring their communities GE-Free Zones.Launched June 2nd, the GE-Free Canada campaign is a nation-wide, grass-roots effort by farmers, environmentalists, and ordinary Canadians concerned with issues of food safety and food sovereignty.</p><p><a href="http://www.canadians.org/display_document.htm?COC_token=23@@b09375e5be3f0c1f651c3d7166fe5023&id=1125&isdoc=1&catid=67">The Council of Canadians</a>

Two thirds of Russians are against genetically modified foods and the majority of experts support a ban on GM crops as the government prepares new production laws.</p><p><a href="http://www.foodproductiondaily.com/news/news-ng.asp?n=60290russians-reject-gm">Foodproduction Daily</a>

Greenpeace and Japanese consumer, environmental and farmer organizations today appealed to the Canadian government to stop contamination of food products and the environment by exporting only non-GE canola in future.</p><p><a href="http://www.prdirect.ca/en/view_release.aspx?TrafficID=2794">PR direct</a>

A United States consignment of genetically modified corn gluten feed tainted with an illegal strain of Bt10 has been impounded upon arrival at an Irish port, the European Commission said on Wednesday.</p><p><a href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=789912">Reuters: Tainted biotech maize impounded at Irish port</a></p><p><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/25/AR2005052500515.html">Washington Post: EU: Ireland Intercepts U.S. Biotech Corn</a></p><p><a href="http://europa.eu.int/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/05/608&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en">EU press release</a>

Tasmania is one of few territories worldwide that can claim a 100% disease-free status for their food products. There is also an absolute ban on genetically modified (GM) produce and antibiotics in beef production; and many products are organic. "Our strengths lie in producing high quality, safe food products that appeal to niche and premium markets," says Alan Campbell of the Tasmanian government.</p><p><a href="http://www.freshplaza.com/2005/23mei/2_au_diseasestatus.htm">Fresh plaza: Tasmania cashes in on disease-free status</a>

Over 250 people from across Europe attended a conference in Brussels to hear regional Ministers and MEP's call for a bigger say in whether GM crops are grown commercially in their region. The number of European regions and provinces now declaring themselves "GM Free zones", or publicly wishing to restrict GM crops, has climbed to 162. Over 4500 local governments and smaller areas in Europe are similarly calling for restrictions to commercial growing. Participants endorsed ten principles on future GMO planting</p><p><a href="http://www.foeeurope.org/press/2005/joint_17_May_gmo_free_zones.htm">FOE/AER: Press Release</a></p><p><a href="http://www.foeeurope.org/press/2005/10_principles_EN.pdf">Ten principles</a>

The Green Party of Cyprus calls for a GMO free country.</p><p><a href="http://gmo-free-regions.org/Downloads/cyprus_green_party.pdf">Declaration</a>

Our campaign for a GMO Free Poland is now bringing together Provincialauthorities, activists and farmers in order to try and devise a commonstrategto enforce the GMO Free Zone status already in place in 9 Polish Provinces.We are running a conference on the 11th /12th May with participants fromall over Poland to launch this next phase and to build on the momentumalready achieved. It is a critical time for the Polish countryside. Thefirst GM fieldtrials have already been announced for this spring and there is the constantdanger of unauthorised seeds finding their way into the market. These arethreatsthat need to be directly addressed and, in common with other Europeanregions, there is no recourse to the law (national or EU) to provideprotection</p><p><a href="http://icppc.pl/pl/gmo/index.php">International Coalition to Protect the Polish Countryside</a>

An ordinance entering into force in January 2006 to control the cultivation of genetically modified (GM) crops in Hokkaido aims to prevent cross-pollination between GM and non-GM crops. The strict regulagtions, which will practically prevent GMO growing aims to gain consumers' confidence and further enhance the image of Hokkaido brands</p><p><a href="http://www.japanfs.org/db/database.cgi?cmd=dp&num=965&dp=data_e.html">Japan for Sustainability</a>

Canadas "potatoe" island Prince Edward Island might be the fist GMO free area in the country. Hearings are being held by the legislative assembly and a controversial debate is on</p><p><a href="http://www.assembly.pe.ca/consult/biotech.php">PEI offical web-site: Biotechnology and Prince Edward Island</a></p><p><a href="http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,62521,00.html">Wired: Canada Island May Boot GMO Crops</a>