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Italy to set up tighter barriers against GMO imports
(Friday, Dec. 19, 2003 -- CropChoice news) -- Agricultural Policies Minister Gianni Alemanno was cited as announcing
at the 23rd International Conference on Biodynamic Agriculture that is
due to wind up in Sabaudia today that the Italian government is going
to be launching a decree as soon as possible to confirm zero tolerance
on GMOs "until tests have been conducted on their impact on
neighbouring crops." The minister was quoted as stressing that the
decree is both necessary and urgent "because seeds have already been
approved in other countries in the [European] Union, that may contain
genetically modified parts varying from 5 per cent to 10 per cent, and
we are in danger of finding them on the market". The issue was
addressed also by EU Commissioner Fischler in Venice. So that is how
the man in charge of agricultural policies has responded, by his
actions, to an appeal launched by FAI [Italian Environment Fund]
Chairwoman Giulia Maria Mozzoni Crespi when she asked him to "save
us
from the transgenic catastrophe which has not been sufficiently well
explained to people".
Alemanno was further quoted as saying, "When a genetically modified organism comes into contact with the environment, we do not know what it may generate. But what we certainly do know is that seven years after an experiment conducted on a terrain in Italy for a single season, powerful traces are still being found of genetically modified material that tends to transfer to subsequent crops. What are the consequences of this? Well, that terrain cannot be
used for any other kind of crop because we absolutely do not know what
might happen." The minister went on to criticize "Europe, which has
made only generic recommendations", noting that the [EU] Court of
Justice has set a procedure in motion "against Austria that declared
itself GMO-free, and it is getting set to do the same against Puglia
and Tuscany"
Source: Dec. 2, 2003 http://www.genet-info.org |