Updates of IFOAM EU Working Fields - GMOs Proponent of GM food is appointed as EU’s first Chief Scientific Advisor

Source: ifoam.org

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GMOs

Proponent of GM food is appointed as EU’s first Chief Scientific Advisor

President Barroso has appointed Anne Glover, Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of Aberdeen and Chief Scientific Advisor to the Scottish Government as the EU’s first Chief Scientific Advisor. Glover who has spoken publicly in favour of GM food, as a means to end poverty and hunger, will directly advise the President and provide updates on significant scientific and technological developments.

GM crop cultivation in Europe

They are campaigning: A small event to promote the production of GM-food in Europe was organised by FuturAgra, an association for technology-based agricultural entrepreneurs on 28th November 2011 in Brussels. Food security, freedom of choice, and the message that European farmers need to compete and keep up with global GMO developments, were used as arguments for GM-agriculture. The reality of contamination and economic losses for organic farmers and other GMO-free farmers was ignored, and the need for greater pesticide use over the years to fight new resistant pests was down played with the statement that this was a result of mismanagement by the farmer.

Split votes in Council may lead to the authorisation of new GM imports

EU Farm Ministers failed to reach a qualified majority for the authorisation of 3 GM maize events and 1 GM cotton event, for food, feed and other purposes, excluding cultivation, at a meeting of the Agriculture Council on the 15 December. The approval of these events, which come under pre-Lisbon Treaty rules, means that the European Commission is now empowered to finalise the authorisation. The failure to reach an opinion follows a split vote by member states on the same GM events at the Standing Committee on the Food Chain & Animal Health (SCoFCAH) in February 2011. Earlier in December the SCoFCAH also to failed to come to a conclusion on the authorisation of two GM soybean events. Under new procedures these events will now be brought before an EU ‘Appeal Committee’, chaired by the Commission and composed of member state officials in early 2012.

High Court in France repeals GMO ban

On 28th November 2011, the French High Court decided that the French ban on Monsanto’s genetically-modified maize variety MON810 was not based on sufficient legal arguments. Agriculture Minister Bruno Le Maire confirmed that France will examine all ways to keep the ban on GMO maize.

Biodiversity and farming

Some insight into the current discussion on CAP reform, biodiversity and resource efficiency can be found in the presentations and videos available on the website of the European Landowners’ Organisation’s (ELO) conference “The 2020 Biodiversity strategy: a public-private partnership for sustainable resource use”.

Member States decide to remove meaningful reference to agriculture in EU Biodiversity Strategy

The IFOAM EU Group has criticised the decision by EU Environment Ministers to omit calls for biodiversity objectives to be integrated into the CAP in its conclusions on the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020. The Conclusions adopted by the Council on the 19 December set a dangerous precedent as the EU attempts to raise the environmental performance of agriculture and steer European food and farming towards a more ecologically sustainable future. With biodiversity input in the CAP reform now in the hands of MEPs and Agricultural Ministers the IFOAM EU Group has called on decision-makers take decisive action to safeguard and restore biodiversity by promoting the future growth of more sustainable farming systems.

More information: http://www.ifoam.org

Tip: OrganicPortal Deutschland - Bio Verbund

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