"94,6 percent of EU citizens want the
right to choose, 85,9 percent want to know
more before eating GMOs, and 70,9 percent
simply do not want GMO food"
Eurobarometer opinion poll, European
Commssion, December 2001
Since the 1990s, there has been growing
public concern in Europe about the impact
that GM crops will have on both the
environment and public health.
Environmental and consumer organizations,
doctors, scientists, food processors and
retailers, farmers, landowners, development
agencies and the majority of European
citizens have increasingly raised their
concerns.
A survey of leading European food
manufacturers carried out in 2000 showed
that faced with consumer opposition to
GMOs, nearly all of Europe's top twenty
food processing companies, including
Unilever, Nestlé and Kraft/Jacobs/Suchard,
had either already removed or intended to
remove genetically modified ingredients
from their product lines.
“Ingredients used in our products
are not derived from genetically modified
sources and no GMOs are used in our soft
drink manufacturing process or in those of
our ingredients suppliers in Europe .”
Pepsi Cola
“Respecting consumer concerns was a
priority for Danone. Therefore it has
decided not to use such ingredients in its
products sold in the EU.”
Danone
“Kellogg's is conscious of consumer
preferences and does not use GM maize or
soy ingredients or derivatives in its
breakfast cereals sold in Europe .”
Kellogg's
moratorium mania
The growing concern about the release of
GM crops into the food chain and into the
environment had prompted five European
Union member states to impose either
specific bans or some form of moratorium on
GM plants by the end of the 1990s. Austria
and Luxembourg adopted a ban on Novartis GM
maize; France imposed a moratorium on all
GM plants with indigenous relatives (such
as oilseed rape and beet) for two years;
Greece banned a variety of GM oilseed rape;
and the UK announced a three-year
“moratorium” on insect-resistant GM
crops.
In practice, no new GMOs have been
authorized for planting or use in the EU
since 1998. In June 1999, five EU member
states – Denmark , France , Greece , Italy
and Luxembourg – issued an official
declaration which established a de facto
moratorium: they committed to effectively
blocking new GMO approvals until
comprehensive legislation on GMOs has been
adopted. This moratorium has prevented new
GMOs from entering the European market
since that time.
In addition, independent of the EU
moratorium, an increasing number of regions
and local areas are working towards
becoming GM-free zones. By the end of 2003,
ten European regions had declared
themselves “the network of GMO-free
regions”.
For example, the region of Upper Austria
has passed a law making it a GM-free zone.
Five other provincial parliaments (
Salzburg , Tirol , Burgenland, Steirmark
and Lower Austria ) have also moved to
declare their provinces GMO-free. In Italy
, four regions ( Tuscany , Molise , Lazio
and Marche ) have banned GM crops.
Additionally, a large number of cities have
declared themselves GM-free, including Rome
, Milan , Turin , Brescia and Genoa . In
Spain , the government of the Basque region
has issued a five-year blanket moratorium
for GMOs. In Switzerland , three cantons
have so far effectively banned the
commercial release of GMOs: in the canton
of Ticino , a law was passed banning the
cultivation of GMOs.
In the UK , 22 areas have approved a
GM-free resolution. In November 2003, the
British National Trust voted overwhelmingly
to go GM free and to ban GM crops from
being grown on Trust land. The Trust is the
largest private owner of agricultural land
in England , Wales and Northern Ireland ,
owning more than 600,000 acres of land of
which over 80 percent is farmed or depends
upon farming for its management.
Additionally, the Welsh Assembly has
adopted a GM-free policy and has passed the
first laws on separation distances for
crops in Europe .
more information
:
A map of all GM-free communes in Italy
can be found at:
www.rfb.it/comuni.liberi.ogm/comuni_aderenti/adesioni.htm
See UK GM free zones at:
www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/real_food/resource/gm_free_britain/index.html
An interactive map on the FoE UK
website:
www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/real_food/press_for_change/email_la/index.shtml
Information about GM-free zones in Wales
:
www.foe.co.uk/cymru/english/campaigns/real_food/gm.html
Friends of the Earth Europe GMO
campaign:
www.foeeurope.org
