MEDIA ADVISORY February 19, 2004
Friends of the Earth International
GM CROPS REPORT SHOWS A DECADE OF FAILURE
AND URGENT NEED FOR LIABILITY RULES
A
new
report
will be released on Feb. 23rd. It
shows the negative consequences of 10 years
of Genetically Modified crops on our planet
and the need for international liability
rules.
Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) / Brussels
(Belgium) February 23, 2004 – Ten years after
the first Genetically Modified (GM) crop
appeared on market shelves, biotech
corporations are still failing to deliver
their promised GM crops with clear benefits
for consumers or farmers, according to a new
report released on February 23.
The release of the 1994-2004 report today
coincides with the start in Kuala Lumpur of
United Nations talks on GM 'Organisms' and
their potential risks. This is the first
meeting of the 'Biosafety Protocol' [2], an
international treaty that became law in
September 2003.
The 51-page report "Genetically Modified
crops: a decade of failure [1994-2004]" shows
that GM crops are causing problems especially
to farmers and to the environment and shows,
among others, that:
* Not only do GM crops have adverse
socio-economic impacts. They also created
novel and alarming environmental problems
(such as genetic contamination) and some of
them (such as GM oilseed rape in the UK or GM
maize in Mexico) directly threaten
biodiversity.
* The large-scale release of GM crops around
the globe (the biotech industry's objective)
would further exacerbate the ecological
vulnerability already associated with
monoculture agriculture.
* The case of Argentina (the world's second
largest producer of GM crops) proves that GM
crops are not the solution for 'feeding the
world', as the biotech companies claim, since
millions of Argentinians face hunger and
malnutrition.
* In general, consumers worldwide are still
reluctant to embrace GM foods.
* Many poor countries rejected even food aid
if it contained GM ingredients.
* Consumers and retailers forced biotech
giant Monsanto to delay the commercialization
of its GM wheat, initially planned for
2004.
* In Europe distrust in GM is so high that
GM food has in effect been removed from the
majority of supermarket shelves. The
situation is likely not to change
“Contrary to the promises made by the
biotech corporations, the reality of the last
ten years shows that the safety of GM crops
cannot be ensured, that they are neither
cheaper nor higher quality and that they are
not the magical solution to solve world
hunger," said in Kuala Lumpur Juan Lopez of
Friends of the Earth International.
"The world urgently needs liability laws
to make polluters pay for the genetic
contamination they make. The process to make
such laws possible should be agreed here this
week," Lopez added in Kuala Lumpur.
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
In Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia),
Juan Lopez, Friends of the Earth
International
Tel: +60-123952149 or +39-333-1498049
E-mail: juan.lopez@foeeurope.org
Or
Shamila Ariffin
Friends of the Earth Malaysia
Tel: +60-16-3174049
Email: shamila73@yahoo.com
In Brussels (Belgium)
Adrian Bebb, Friends of the Earth
Europe
Tel: +49-1609 490 1163
Adrian.bebb@foeeurope.org
In San Salvador, El Salvador (Central
America)
Ricardo Navarro, Chair, Friends of the
Earth International.
Tel: +503-2200046 or +503-2206480
E-mail: foeichair@navegante.com.sv
NOTES TO EDITORS:
[1] The report is available to download at
the Friends of the Earth International
website
[2] For more information on this February
23-27 "First meeting of the Conference of the
Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties
to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety" go to
the official UN website:
http://www.biodiv.org/biosafety/
The meeting will mainly discuss a
biosafety clearing-house mechanism,
bio-safety capacity-building, liability and
redress, protocol compliance, and the
handling, transport, packaging and
identification of GM (or Living Modified)
organisms.
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