ORGANIC AGRICULTURE
IS NOT THE WAY FORWARD
The result of the European Parliament
vote on Directive 90/220 in May concerning
liability for GMO releases was a major
defeat for the European environmental
movement. With its failure to adopt the
Directive, the Parliament relinquished the
ability to punish companies responsible for
contaminating GM-free crops. This setback,
which came about despite heavy lobbying by
the largest environmental groups in Europe,
stems from the lack of constructive
proposals from the NGO community on how to
deal with existing problems in the
agricultural sector. The biotech industry,
on the other hand, came well prepared with
alternative proposals to the current
situation.
In the case of Directive 90/220,
companies claimed that they could solve the
problem of worldwide hunger and reduce
chemical inputs in agriculture. The NGO
lobby, meanwhile, proposed only
improvements to the Directive itself and
offered no compelling arguments for a way
forward. The European environmental
movement suffers from a lack of coherent,
realistic and viable positions and
proposals for agriculture. This inability
to put forth a clear position on a gentler
form of agriculture, based on the
protection of agricultural biodiversity,
lost the battle for the NGOs. The results,
celebrated by northern European biotech
firms, will soon be visible in the southern
Mediterranean region and elsewhere around
Europe.
Organic vs. Native
Agriculture
Most NGOs believe that widespread organic
cultivation is the answer. However, they
are technically wrong for several reasons.
Firstly, organic agriculture is a model,
and like all models, does not necessarily
correspond to real life situations.
Secondly, organic agriculture does not
necessarily take native and local varieties
into account, and is focused only on the
use of "good" or "bad" chemicals. Thirdly,
due to their high costs, organic products
are currently available only to the
consumer elite, and thus are not a socially
just alternative to less expensive
conventional food. Fourthly, agricultural
viability for all of Europe requires
solutions that can be applied to every type
of crop in every country, and not just to a
small, environmentally-friendly
percentage.
The southern Mediterranean region
contains the last small islands of
agricultural biodiversity in Europe. This
biodiversity is threatened by GMO
stockbreeders who plan to sow their seeds
in order to feed consumers genetically
manipulated food. The challenge for the
Mediterranean environmental movement is to
inform he area's unique agricultural
biodiversity. Campaigners must also educate
NGOs in northern Europe - where
agricultural biodiversity was lost some
forty years ago - about the gravity of the
situation.
More than 30,000 local varieties of
agricultural plants and animal races
survive in the southern Mediterranean,
whereas fewer than 1,000 remain in northern
Europe. In order to feed European consumers
GM corn, for example, the 1,500 local corn
varieties in the Mediterranean will likely
be destroyed. All over Europe, consumers
must start to ask for native agriculture,
and thus encourage farmers to resist
hybrids and GM seeds.
Vangelis Stogiannis,
FoE
Greece
