Stop the Crop'

The Greens/EFA group has campaigned to assure good and safe food and sustainable agriculture in Europe for years. Our Food Campaign, provides visual and text information in many languages. We cooperate with a number of NGOs such as Save our Seeds, Friends of the Earth and the Network of the GMO-Free-Regions and ensure that their concerns find their way into the discussions in the European Parliament.

Currently, we are working together on the Cyber Action 'Stop the Crop'. The main aim of the Cyber Action is to send a strong signal to National Ministers responsible for GMOs that European citizens do not want GMOs on their fields and on their plates.  However, in direct opposition to the opinion of the majority of European citizens, the European Commission is planning to approve the cultivation of two GM maize varieties: Syngenta Bt11 and Dupont/Pioneer 1507. This would be the first approval of new GM varieties since 1998. So far, Monsanto maize MON 810 has been the only GM crop authorised for cultivation in the EU.

Moreover, the European Commission has been trying to force Austria, Hungary, France and Greece to lift their safeguard measuresagainst MON 810. Yet, on 2 March 2009, the Environment ministers from 22 EU countries overwhelmingly rejected the European Commission's attempt to force Hungary and Austria to lift their bans.

This very positive outcome was possible due to a great engagement of people in the Cyber Action. The action had started on 25 February - by 2 March approximately 18 000 people from all over Europe had signed the petition and sent emails to their respective ministers. To date, over 33 000 emails have been sent from almost all European countries.

This development gives hope for the next Council decisions on the bans in Greece and France and on the approvals of the two new maize varieties. It seems as if the Commission has already changed its mind after the clear vote in the Environment Council and may not bring forward any new proposals before the European elections in June.

Therefore it is even more important that we stay alert!

Take part in the Cyber action and vote for a GMO-free-Europe!

http://www.gmo-free-regions.org/stop-the-crop-action.html