FoE GROUPS AND BIOTECH CAMPAIGNING
FoE groups in North and South have
taken up campaigning against the wave of
genetically-modified crops and food taking
root across the planet. In tune with
various national situations -- ranging from
zero awareness in many countries to public
outrage in others -- campaign strategies
differ from place to place.
AUSTRIA
Global 2000/FoE Austria recently claimed
victory in their campaign for a ban on
Aventis' herbicide-resistant "Chardon LL"
T25 maize, which was being marketed under
the name "Basta". The group constructed a
"wall against GM maize" in front of the
responsible governmental ministry and
organized a postcard action that resulted
in close to 50,000 postcards being sent to
the relevant ministers. Ultimately,
Austria's minister for food safety banned
the import and cultivation of the maize.
This success followed upon the heels of the
banning of Novartis' 176 GM maize for
import and cultivation and Monsanto's 810
GM maize for import into Austria. The next
target for FoE Austria campaigners is the
country's food labelling laws. If the group
has its way, producers failing to label
their GM products will be penalized with
hefty fines and the removal of their
products from supermarket shelves.
Currently, there are more than 150 products
labelled GMO-free in Austria, but most of
them are organic. Hopefully, says
campaigner Heike Moldenhauer, at least one
famous "conventional" brand or product will
eventually use with pride the
"gentech-free" label, which producers have
thus far avoided.
BANGLADESH
The European-style debate about GM food
has not yet arrived in Bangladesh.
Discussion is restricted to very select
groups, namely the government, farmers and
NGOs. FoE Bangladesh's MF Chowdhury would
like to see the public included in the
debate. Right now, his greatest concern
lies with hybrid Monsanto rice, which he
fears could damage the environment and make
farmers dependent on outside seed sources.
"People should depend on their own
knowledge," he argues, adding that farmers
must become less reliant on pesticides,
fertilizers and imported foods, and shift
the focus to local production and
consumption. In addition to hybrid rice,
tomatoes, potatoes and at least one more
type of GM seed is being imported and
cropped in Bangladesh. Chowdhury feels
strongly that until social, market and
political issues are addressed, technical
fixes like GMOs are bound to fail.
COLOMBIA
Though CENSAT Agua Viva/FoE Colombia has
been working on the GMO issue for six
years, the debate has still not reached
Colombia's general public. So far there is
no legislation to either forbid or regulate
the use of GMOs in the country. In this
regulatory vacuum, GM cotton, corn and soya
have already been introduced. FoE
Colombia's stance against GMOs is largely
political in nature: the group wants to
ensure that farmers are guaranteed
independence and sovereignty over their
resources. Campaigner Alejandro Galeano
fears that the large corporations pushing
GM foods will erode this sovereignty. The
group's most recent campaign is a boycott
of imported GM products. They have also
held courses and seminars on GMOs, while at
the same promoting the sustainable
alternatives of organic farming and crop
biodiversity. To this end, they have
collected 40 traditional varieties of
potato and six to seven varieties of
wheat.
DENMARK
NOAH/FoE Denmark has campaigned on gene
technology since the 1980s, with a shift of
focus over the past two years from medicine
to agriculture. The group recently posted
information on the web (www.gendebat.dk)
about GMO test sites in Denmark. Gathering
this information was no easy task -- the
government itself was unaware of the full
picture. Test sites numbered 19 in 2000,
down from 36 last year, due in no small
part to the large Danish food company
Danisco's decision to decrease
biotechnology research in response to
public opinion. According to campaigners
Sofie Krogh Andersen and Bo Normander, one
growing concern for FoE Denmark is the
planned release of the GM bacteria
Pseudomonas fluorescens, known as f113, by
the National Environmental Research
Institute. This bacteria is said to be
capable of degrading PCBs, a claim NOAH
believes to be scientifically unsound.
Furthermore, the GM bacteria contain an
antibiotic resistance marker that may cause
disease and could contaminate the water
table. The release, which has been delayed
until next year, will be the first of its
kind in Europe.
EL SALVADOR
In El Salvador, GMOs are not yet a public
issue according to FoEI Chair Ricardo
Navarro. Although there are neither
regulations nor discussion, GM crops are
being planted, including a Monsanto tomato
that contains a terminator gene and is
genetically modified so as not to rot as
quickly. Navarro believes that GM maize and
soya may also be planted in his country.
Until now, there have been no anti-GMO
campaigns, although FoE El Salvador plans
to launch one in the near future. Navarro
plans to do a public information campaign,
using his group's high profile to gain
media access, with the end goal of an
eventual moratorium on GM food in El
Salvador. Navarro fears that farmers will
be made dependent on GM seeds. "Socially,
it's one of the most inappropriate things
we can conceive of," he says. "Furthermore,
this introduction of a new element in a
balanced ecological system constitutes an
extreme threat."
FRANCE
FoE France is tackling the issue of GM
crops and food by highlighting the issue of
transparency, according to Christian
Berdot-Mair. The French government has
refused to comply with EU Directive 90/220,
which clearly states that information
concerning experimental releases cannot be
kept confidential. In response to these
secretive politics, les Amis de la Terre
has collected intelligence about GM crops
from local groups and published a map
indicating the locations of experimental
field trial sites on their website.
Although this exposure prompted the
agricultural ministry to publish the
location of the test fields, a certain
number of the trial fields indicated at the
local level were not listed by the
governmental agency responsible for
authorizing the sites. When asked to
explain these "ghost trials", the
authorities have kept silent.
Transparency about GMOs is also lacking
when it comes to gastronomic matters in
France. More than half of the noon meals in
the country are taken in canteens, where it
is more difficult to control the
ingredients than at home. Although some
local initiatives have been taken to remove
GMOs from lunch trays around the country,
FoE France provided extra momentum to the
cause by publishing a list of the first
municipalities to say "No GMOs in our
Canteens!" The initiative was a great
success, and has inspired many other eaters
to action. Future actions planned by FoE
France include "No GMOs in my Four Star
Restaurant" (due to the high symbolic value
of haute cuisine in the country) and "No
GMOs on my Meal Tray!" in hospitals,
factories, old age homes, motorway
restaurants, trains and planes.
GHANA
The GMO issue is completely new to
Ghanaian people, and public awareness is
virtually nil. Yet northern countries,
including Canada, Australia and the UK, are
trying to force GMOs onto the country, says
FoE Ghana's Michael Kwesi Nartey, by
putting pressure on universities and other
institutions. "There is no regulation,
nothing," according to Michael, who sees GM
technologies as a manipulation of nature
and believes the numerous uncertainties
about the technology make it a poor system
to adopt. Furthermore, transportation and
storage, not low food production, are the
main challenges faced by Ghana's farmers.
Forty to sixty percent of food goes to
waste, he says, and another new technology
is not the solution.
NETHERLANDS
FoE Netherlands' newly-launched "Organic:
Food Without Bad Taste" campaign addresses
several problems in the area of food,
including GMOs, antibiotics, hormones and
pesticides, and presents organic
agriculture as the solution to these
problems. According to campaigner Nicole
Bakker, the Dutch campaign will have three
targets: points of sales for food
(including supermarkets, canteens and
restaurants), the food production industry,
and national and European politicians. In
short, sellers must offer a broad selection
of organic food, the food industry must
produce organic food, and politicians must
be made responsible for creating the right
conditions for all of this to happen. A
series of debates on genetic engineering
and food was held in June, and later in the
year a delegation of southern farmers and
environmental groups will be invited to the
Netherlands to give their perspective on GM
agriculture. There will also be several
activities on pesticide residues, and of
course direct actions to increase the
number of organic products.
POLAND
The average Polish consumer does not know
anything about GMOs, and even national
consumer organizations are not exactly sure
where they stand on the issue. Nonetheless,
since April this year, Poland has one of
the most restrictive legal frameworks for
GMOs in Europe. Permits are required for
the deliberate release of GMOs into the
environment for experimental purposes and
for placing biotech products on the market.
Packages containing GMOs must be labelled,
and the environmental and health threats
must also be included.
Unfortunately, this new regulation is
impotent. Products containing GMOs are not
labelled, and the responsible agencies are
content to rely on the "good will" of the
producers. The GMO lobby --
industry-sponsored scientists, corporate
lobby groups and TNCs that adopt double
standards by marketing GMO-free food in
western Europe -- is eager to penetrate new
markets due to the unwelcome status of GMOs
in neighbouring EU countries. According to
Ewa Hajduk of FoE Poland, the powerful
biotech lobby has also managed to conceal
the field trials currently taking place in
Poland. NGOs are thus campaigning for
better monitoring and enforcement of
GMO-related activities, as well as
increasing public awareness about biotech
food.
SPAIN
When it comes to GM foods, "Spain is the
black sheep of Europe," says FoE Europe's
Juan Lopez. He cites as evidence the
country's more than 20,000 hectares of Bt
corn -- a crop banned in Australia and
Germany. FoE Spain has demanded that the
authorization to grow such crops be
revoked, and has called for a moratorium on
the cultivation and trade of GM foods until
their impacts can be better assessed. The
group also filed a request for access to
information on the locations of Spanish GM
field trials. As the request was denied by
the government, FoE Spain may now take the
matter to court. The group considers this a
crucial issue, as genetic pollution from
field trial plots may affect organic
farmers in the vicinity. The Spanish
government is certainly pro-GMO, Lopez
says. "One of our own biosafety
commissioners has said that GMOs are safe
and that there's no possibility of gene
transfer."
SWEDEN
FoE Sweden began campaigning on GMOs last
year, and has adopted a largely educational
approach as typified by their distribution
of an eight-page booklet that asks sobering
questions about the ecological consequences
of GMOs. "We don't try to scare people, but
we want these questions answered," says
campaigner Charley Hultén. "Questions like,
"What happens when a plant has pesticidal
properties?" In May the group rallied in
Stockholm to mark their submission of a
petition to the agriculture minister
containing tens of thousands of Swedish
signatures in support of the international
campaign for a "Five Year Freeze" on GM
foods. The rally coincided with the wave of
heightened public concern after rapeseed
crops contaminated by genetically modified
material were discovered across Europe.
Surprisingly, the group has found strong
allies among Swedish farmers - even
non-organic ones. Sixty-five to seventy
percent of the country's farmers say that
they will oppose GMOs until more research
is done and the technology proven safe.
TOGO
According to FoE Togo's Bernard Hakzimana,
knowledge of GM food is restricted to
scientists and institutions in Togo, and
the issue is largely unknown to the general
public. Hakzimana is concerned that
transnational corporations with purely
trade-related motives are now marketing
their technologies, and especially their
seeds, to southern people. In Togo, there
is currently no legislation to control the
use of GMOs. According to Hakzimana, "We
want information, now held only by
institutions, brought to the level of the
general population." He prefers to take a
cautious approach when it comes to
genetically engineered food. "Although some
GMOs may not be so dangerous, there is
already objective information about the
dangers of specific GMOs. We need to have
access to research, and we need to inform
people."
UNITED KINGDOM
FoE England, Wales and Northern Ireland's
GM food campaign is part of their larger
"Real Food" initiative that promotes local
organic food production. One major focus of
their work in this area is a campaign to
stop farm-scale GMO trials, which the group
believes are scientifically unsound and of
dubious research merit. Community activism
has scored dramatic gains to this end, with
many farmers pulling out of the field
trials in response to pressure from within
their communities. FoE is also promoting a
bill in the House of Commons that would see
liability for harm caused by GMOs assumed
by the biotech companies. Another major
focus for the campaign has been the
targeting of GMO retailers via consumer
campaigns. According to campaigner Emily
Diamond, educating consumers has generated
sufficient market pressure to force most
large supermarket chains to completely stop
stocking GM products. Now that GM food for
humans is largely off the shelves, the
group plans to target GM animal feed.
GM-free shopping
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FoE England, Wales and Northern
Ireland (EWNI) and FoE Austria have
both produced palm-sized guides
informing shoppers about how to avoid
GM foods in their supermarkets. FoE
EWNI's guide lists the "safe" foods
that are GM-free as well as the more
suspect products which may contain GM
soya or maize. The phone numbers of
the large chain supermarkets are also
listed. FoE Austria's shopping guide
notes that approximately 70 percent
of processed food could contain GM
ingredients, as these ingredients do
not have to be labelled, and
highlights those products that are
potentially most risky. The group has
printed 150,000 of the guides, and
according to Heike Moldenhauer, "It
is the most successful product we
have made in the past five years." An
idea to try in your country?
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Compiled by Janice Wormworth and Ann
Doherty,
FoEI
