Brussels, 13 October 2015 – Today’s vote in the European Parliament’s Committee of Agriculture (AGRI) significantly amends the Commission’s proposal for a new organic legislation. This follows the sector's concern in many areas and is further recognition that the original proposal would hinder sustainable growth of organic production in Europe. Although AGRI vote delivers a solid basis in many areas for further negotiations, some obstacles still remain.

"IFOAM EU supports the Committee’s rejection of the Commission proposal to introduce a decertification threshold for non-authorised substances and its suggestion to better harmonise investigation procedures in cases of contamination. This will strengthen process-based inspections and follows what IFOAM EU has been requesting since the beginning", highlights Christopher Stopes, President of IFOAM EU.

The Global Movement for Seed Freedom invites you to join people and communities around the globe, from the 2nd to the 16th of October to celebrate our seeds, our soils, our land, our territories, and to create an Earth Democracy based on Living Seed, Living Soil, healthy communities and living economies.

http://seedfreedom.info/events/

We are living in a changing and challenging world.

We clearly have two totally different world orders, two totally different world views, two totally different paradigms evolving.

One is based on ONE Corporation with one paradigm, one agriculture, monopolies, monocultures, crushing the soil, crushing the biodiversity, crushing the small farmers, crushing our bodies with disease.

On the other hand we have billions of species, millions of people.

We, the people – cannot fail the Earth, each other and the future.

http://seedfreedom.info/events/

Press Release By Dr Vandana Shiva

A whitefly epidemic has devastated the Bt cotton crop in Punjab forcing farmers to use 10-12 sprays – each costing Rs 3200. This, in addition to the high cost of Bt seeds sold by Monsanto-Mahyco Biotech. In Maharashtra, Haryana and Punjab, farmers growing non Bt, desi cotton have not been impacted by pests like Bt cotton has. And organic farmers in Punjab had no whitefly attack.

Glyphosate-based herbicides are the major pesticides used worldwide. The most common is Roundup. A new peer-reviewed study has examined the effects of a very low dose of Roundup weed killer on the pattern of gene function (transcriptome) in rats over a 2-year period. It is the first study of its kind to do this at environmentally relevant doses.

The study found a distinct and consistent alteration in the pattern of gene function in both the liver and kidneys of the Roundup treatment group. These changes correlate with and confirm observations of pathology made at an anatomical, histological and blood/urine biochemical level. Taken together, the evidence indicates that chronic/long-term exposure to Roundup at an ultra-low, environmental dose can result in liver and kidney damage.

BRUSSELS, Oct 4 (Reuters) - Nineteen EU member states have requested opt-outs for all or part of their territory from cultivation of a Monsanto genetically-modified crop, which is authorised to be grown in the European Union, the European Commission said on Sunday.

Under a law signed in March, individual countries can seek exclusion from any approval request for genetically modified cultivation across the 28-nation EU.

The law was introduced to end years of stalemate as genetically modified crops divide opinion in Europe.

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The 19 requests are from Austria, Belgium for the Wallonia region, Britain for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Germany (except for research), Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland and Slovenia.

Farmers’ Rights and Food Sovereignty Under Fire

Submitted on 02 October 2015

At a time when just three corporations – Monsanto, DuPont and Syngenta – control 55% of the world’s commercial seeds, industrial farming interests in the Brazilian Congress have introduced a bill that aims to overturn the country’s 10-year old ban on Terminator technology – seeds that have been genetically modified to render sterile seeds. The technology is designed to secure corporate profits by eliminating the age-old right of farmers to save and re-plant harvested seeds.

If passed, the bill before the Brazilian Congress – PL 1117/2015 – would violate an international moratorium on the field testing and commercialization of Terminator seeds – unanimously adopted in 2000, and re-affirmed in 2006 by 192 governments at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity meeting in Curitiba, Brazil.

For nearly two decades, the controversial Terminator technology has been widely condemned by farmers, scientific bodies, governments and social movements/civil society as a threat to food sovereignty, biodiversity and human rights. In May, Pope Francis wrote of the threat posed by “infertile seeds.”

Press release - October 1, 2015

PRESS RELEASE UPDATED ON 2 OCTOBER TO INCLUDE NOTIFICATIONS FOR GM CROP CULTIVATION BANS BY BULGARIA, CYPRUS, LUXEMBOURG AND WALES

Brussels – In the latest blow to the European Commission’s laissez-faire approach to GM crops, at least 16 EU countries and four regions (in two other countries) are in the process of banning the cultivation of GM crops on their territories, with more expected to follow by a 3 October deadline for notifications to the EU, said Greenpeace.

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On 2 October, eleven EU countries (Austria, Croatia, Cyprus, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, and Poland) and four regional administrations (Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in the UK, and Wallonia in Belgium) had already formally notified the Commission of their intention to ban GM crop cultivation under new EU rules [1]. Statements by the governments of five additional countries inform of more impending notifications (Bulgaria, Denmark, Italy, Luxembourg and Slovenia).

Poland is the latest country to reject genetically modified organisms in their food production, thus exercising a right granted to all EU member states earlier this year.

Poland is the eleventh country so far to officially abstain from using GM food approved by the European Commission. In a drive to address national concerns, in March Brussels authorized countries to opt out of genetically engineered crop cultivation if such a step is to be taken as a safety measure to protect not only human health and the environment, but also consumer interests and the internal market. - See more at: http://www.thenews.pl/1/9/Artykul/223049,Poland-opts-out-of-GMOs#sthash.G4igiRcd.dpuf

With the deadline for EU countries who wish to ban genetically GM crops drawing near, writes Oliver Tickell, Poland is the latest to register with the European Commission to go GM-free. Now the division of the EU into pro and anti-GM zones may test the single market beyond its limits.

Poland has just registered with the European Commission as an official GM-free zone. This makes it the tenth EU member state to opt out of cultivating genetically modified (GM) crops.

It joins France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Hungary, Greece, Slovenia, Lithuania and Latvia in either filing the necessary papers with the Commission, or announcing their intention to do so.

Germany has told the European Union it will ban cultivation of crops with genetically modified organisms (GMOs), under new European Union rules allowing member states to opt out of GMO cultivation, a document seen by Reuters showed on Wednesday.

German Agriculture Minister Christian Schmidt has informed the EU Commission that Germany will not permit GMO cultivation on its territory, a letter from Germany's Agriculture Ministry to the Commission seen by Reuters shows.

An EU law approved in March cleared the way for new GMO crops to be approved after years of deadlock. But the law also gave individual countries the right to ban GMO crops even after they have been approved as safe by the European Commission.

Under the new EU rules, countries must by Oct. 3, 2015, inform the EU Commission if they wish to opt out of new EU GMO cultivation approvals.