MOP - Meeting of the Parties

See some pictures of the action on monday, as the "decontamination team" handed out leaflets and a summary of the new report

The following documents are being presented at the MoP by our special "decontamination team"
Bt10 leaflet
StarLink Chronology
US Proposals to contaminate

gmo talks end in acrimony

Key United Nations negotiations on the safe trade of genetically modified crops and foods ended in early June in acrimony. Despite over 100 countries demanding comprehensive controls to limit GM contamination, the move was blocked by just two countries that sided with the GM industry – New Zealand and Brazil. These UN Biosafety Protocol negotiations were aimed at bringing in international rules to reduce contamination from imports of GM crops and to introduce full labeling. However, despite support from virtually all countries, especially in the developing world, little progress was made in making the laws stronger due to shameless blocking by New Zealand and Brazil

 

Between the 30th of May and the 3rd of June, Montreall hosted the second Meeting of the Parties (MOP) of the Biosafety Protocol. The Parties to the Protocol negotiated a decision about how to identify Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) for food, feed and processing. GMO contamination today is one of the major threats to biosafety worldwide. The issue of identifying GMO shipments for food, feed and processing would give a signal to whether we are moving towards a world where GMO contamination becomes the exception or the rule.
To tackle GMO contamination effectively, segregation and identity preserved systems are necessary so that GM crops can be separated from non-GM crops, and GM events can be traced through the whole chain

The meeting is already steeped in controversy with Canada refusing visas for several delegates from the developing world.

 

A new report from Friends of the Earth "tackling GMO contamination: making segregation and identity preservation a reality" calls tighter measures to prevent accidental contamination of conventional food. The report, published by Friends of the Earth International, the world's largest grassroots environmental network, concludes that the threat of GMO contaminaton would be greatly reduced if the few countries producing GM crops were forced to segregate effectively conventionally grown crops from GM ones.