First announcement, save the date!

GMO Free Regions 2015 - Governments, Business, Scientists and Civil Society gather in Berlin

Ten years after the first European GMO Free Regions conference took place in Berlin over 60 regional governments and hundreds of companies and their associations, science groups and civil society organizations will meet on May 6-8 2015 again.

It is certainly time to celebrate enormous successes – With more than 60 regional governments within Europe united as Network of GMO Free Regions, hundreds of additional subregional entities and municipalities, farmers declared GMO Free areas and thousands of enterprises guaranteeing their products to be free of genetically modified ingredients, including also animal products, this movement has really changed the markets and the policies within the European Union and well beyond. GMO Free Regions have now been established and declared on all continents of the world, and their numbers are growing.

Geflügel: Handel will weg vom Genfutter

Thursday, 28 August 2014 LZnet/dl.

(Lebensmittelzeitung http://www.lebensmittelzeitung.net/)

After months of confrontation, the German poultry industry and food retailers are talking about the reintroduction of GMO-free feed.

In great unanimity, the German retailers wish for the poultry meat industry and the egg producers to return entirely to feeding animals without genetic engineering. According to the ideas of the grocers, this is to be the case again from January 2015.

The German Poultry Association (ZDG) does not want to commit itself to this date. First, the result of a jointly agreed study is to be reviewed, says ZDG CEO Thomas Janning talking to Lebensmittel-Zeitung: "We will not be blackmailed."

(.....)

For this purpose, a working group "Soy in Animal Feed" was established under the auspices of the QS animal welfare initiative. This is where the retailer representatives defined the long-term goal to abandon genetic engineering in the feed rations of the entire animal husbandry, including the feeding of pigs and cattle. The production of poultry meat is given priority.

"Everyone has to come clean"

Task and time schedules were agreed on providing for representative analyses for contaminations in feed as well as the clarification of legal issues in regards to labeling. Janning considers this indispensable: "Everyone has to come clean. We must not slide into a new feed scandal. "

If the working group comes to the conclusion that GMO-free feeding is possible Janning holds an industry agreement to be the right way to proceed. Starting point could then be the new soy harvest 2015.

A letter was sent to German MEPs signed by 11 German/European NGOs concerning a draft directive granting to EU member states to decide whether or not they wish to cultivate genetically modified organisms(GMOs) on their territory.

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EU needs a legally sound mechanism for prohibiting GM cultivation and independent risk assessment

(.....)

Please, make sure that 'Opt-Out' is considerably revised in the relevant committees. It should protect consumers and the environment, not the interests of GM companies. On the basis of the European Parliament's decision of 05.07.2011, we are asking you to:

strengthen the precautionary principle in the risk assessment and cultivation of genetically modified plants;

ensure that EFSA's risk assessment of GMO is independent and rigorous;

ensure that national prohibition of GM cultivation is based on EU environmental law (Article 192 of the Treaty on the functioning of the European Union) which would make them more legally sounder and binding;

help to protect the sovereignty of the EU and its member states by ensuring that they are not obliged to ask GM companies before they can prohibit the cultivation of GM plants;

ensure that prohibiting the cultivation of GM plants will be possible at any time without having to provide 'new objective circumstances';

help protect the many GM-free farmers and food producers by ensuring that an appropriate period of time must be respected before a ban on the cultivation of GM plants can be revoked.

Numerous opinion polls have shown that EU voters oppose genetically modified plants in agriculture and in their food. Now it is up to you to engage in the negotiations with Commission and Council to provide member states with a genuine opportunity to prohibit the cultivation of GM plants, to ensure that risk assessment is carried out rigorously and that member states' full sovereignty is protected.

(Download the letter: EU needs a legally sound mechanism for prohibiting GM cultivation and independent risk assessment)

Transgenes - moving without control

http://www.stop-the-spread-of-transgenes.org/

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EFSA gives carte blanche to the uncontrolled spread of Monsanto's genetically engineered oilseed rape

German government urged to take action to stop the flow of transgenes into the environment

26 June 2014. In a letter addressed to the German government, ten organisations are warning 

that genetically modified rapeseed could spread uncontrollably throughout the EU. The letter 

voices concern about a current European Food Safety Authority EFSA opinion, which argues 

in favour of an EU import approval for Monsanto's rapeseed MON88302. The glyphosate­

resistant plant is to be imported in the form of viable seeds and, in Europe, will only be 

processed into feed. The plants have shown unexpected side effects due to a genetic 

modification that causes the plants to flower earlier than their natural counterparts. In its 

opinion, EFSA confirms that "the occurrence of feral GMHT [genetically modified herbicide­

tolerant] oilseed rape plants are likely to occur wherever GMHT oilseed rape is transported." 

Even so, the authority sees no problems for agriculture and the environment.

The availability of, and preference for, non-genetically modified (non-GM) soybeans as an animal feed is again being debated in Germany.

Because of the very strong anti-GMO-movement and anti-GMO stance in Germany, 87% of Germans are against GMOs in agriculture and food production. In 2012 there were no commercial GM crops grown in Germany, and this will remain the case in 2013. Monsanto´s Mon 810 maize has been banned since 2009 and BASF´s Amflora potato was an economic disaster from the very beginning – authorised in 2010 for cultivation, it was grown by just one farmer on 15 hectares in 2010 and 2 hectares in 2011, and then never again.

BASF Plant Science will again conduct field trials this year with genetically optimized potatoes which are undergoing the EU approval process. The field trials will take place at various sites in Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands. In addition to the starch potato Modena, the company will also be planting its late blight resistant variety Fortuna. [...] Besides multiplication, the aim of the current cultivation is to test and document the performance of the potato varieties under different environmental conditions as well as the resistance characteristics of the Fortuna potato.

Testbiotech is today publishing a database designed to give an overview of the risks associated with genetically engineered plants allowed for marketing in the European Union, or being about to be authorised soon. The current version of the database, called PlantGeneRisk, gives an overview of thirteen genetically engineered crops, four soy plants and nine maize plants. Ten of these plants already have EU authorisation for use, import and usage in food and feed, one of them is also allowed for cultivation.

With the election for the German parliament looming on September 27, a recent poll suggests that political parties that don’t support agribiotech have a better chance of pulling in the votes. According to a fresh poll, about 65% of Germans are opposed to genetic engineering in food plants. [...] 41% of the 1003 surveyed poeple said that they would not vote for a political party that supports agri-biotechnology.

A majority of the members of Germany’s parliament are against the current ban of Monsanto’s genetically engineered maize Mon 810, that could not be planted this year by German farmers after Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner argued there might be effects on non-target organisms such as ladybugs. On Monday, a majority of the members of the Deutscher Bundestag rejected a motion of the German Greens to vote against EU re-authorisation of Monsanto’s Bt maize as well as against a permanent ban of Mon810 cultivation in Germany.