The European Network of GMO-free regions is rapidly gaining new members. After the German states of Schleswig-Holstein and Saarland now Baden-Württemberg joined the alliance. Agriculture Minister Alexander Bonde (The Greens) officially signed the declaration yesterday.

"The only winners of agro-biotechnology are the big corporations. Presently threats to humans, animals or the environment through the use of genetically modified organism can´t be excluded," the minister said after the signing. Bonde announced that with joining the network he also wants to send a signal to the German federal government and the European Commission: "Federal states and regions need to get the opportunity to declare themselves GMO-free.”

The German states of Thuringia and North Rhine-Westphalia also belong to the European GMO free regions network. A total of 57 European regions and local authorities are now on board. They all officially abandon the cultivation of GMO on state-owned land. Since 2008, no more GMO crops have been cultivated in Baden-Württemberg.