Worries over potatoes

On Monday the European Commission summoned the German biotech company BASF (Plant Science Sweden) to Brussels to explain how a not-yet authorized genetically modified (GM) potato crop, called Amadea, was growing in one of their fields in Sweden.

The fields containing Amadea potatoes have been destroyed but controversy and questions still remain. Activists and officials want to know why they did not destroy the surrounding contaminated fields and how widespread the problem is given that similar situations have arisen in Germany and the Czech Republic.  

Over the weekend Greenpeace released a statement alerting the public, highlighting that the plants have been growing since June 11 of this year.  It was the German company itself that first notified Swedish authorities, explaining that the seeds had been planted by accident and reassuring them that the fields in question had already been destroyed.

“Now we have proof that GMO production can’t be controlled,” says Akiko Frid, Swedish GMO campaigner of Greenpeace, speaking to Vita Europe.

Greenpeace is pleased that Swedish authorities and the European Commission have followed up and are putting pressure on the company but does not believe enough is being done at the European level to prevent similar situation from occurring.

Frid calls the commissions current stance on GMOs in Europe “incomplete” and she says that the GMO “authorization system needs to be more stringent.”  

Several environmental organisations and a growing number of European citizens are criticizing the commission for its handling of GMO authorization in Europe. A petition calling for a moratorium on all new GM crops in the EU until a proper safety regime is put in place by the commission has gathered 761,669 signatures. If the petition collects a million signatures, under the newly enacted Citizen’s initiative, the commission will be obliged to consider its proposal.

For its part Greenpeace is part of a GMO free Europe movement, supporting local municipalities across Europe that have declared themselves GMO free zones.

“There are already over 5,000 GMO free municipalities across Europe and in Sweden one county and 5 municipalities have said no to GMO farming,” says Frid.

“We can’t wait for the EU to make a decision,” adds Frid.  

To find out more:

A “dubious bargain” says the European Green bloc, referring to the European Commission’s July 13 proposal to allow members states to ban the cultivation of Genetically Modified crops if they reduce their opposition during the EU-level authorisation process. Read more…