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139 organisations join forces to preserve GMO regulations
Cover of the joint position paper
"No deregulation of new genetic engineering methods! Preserve the right to GMO-free production, freedom of choice and the precautionary principle!" - is the title of the unusually comprehensive alliance's joint document. The organisations demand that Genetic engineering must continue to be regulated consistently in accordance with the EU Genetic Engineering Act and in line with the precautionary principle. Five of them have sent an open letter to German Agricultural Minister Cem Özdemir, emphasising their joint demands and expressing their views:
Olaf Bandt, Chairman of the German Federation for the Environment and Nature Conservation (BUND): "Genetic engineering must remain regulated. The proposal presented by the EU Commission contradicts the European precautionary principle and international agreements on the protection of biodiversity. Risk assessment, traceability and freedom of choice as central achievements of European genetic engineering law would thus be abolished".
Moritz Tapp, Federal Board Member of BUNDjugend: "The big corporations that own patents and thus expand their market power would benefit from a new regulation - if the proposal were adopted, the right of consumers to decide what they want on their plates would be sacrificed to these corporate interests and our food security would be jeopardised".
Elisabeth Waizenegger, dairy farmer and national board member of the Working Group for Rural Agriculture (AbL): "We farmers want to continue to farm conventionally and organically GMO-free, i.e. determine our own farming methods. To achieve this, Minister Özdemir must now enforce the retention of strict GMO regulation, including effective coexistence and liability regulations."
Carla Klusmann, Young AbL: "We must not allow market power to be divided up between individual corporations. We need many, diverse farms and site-adapted breeds. An agriculture that is a real alternative for us young farmers and does not force us into economic dependencies from the outset."
Tina Andres, Chairwoman of the Board of the German Federation of Organic Food Producers (BÖLW): "The organic food industry works without GMO, transparently and sustainably - in line with the wishes of over 90 per cent of consumers. The GMO industry now wants to impose its economic model on us - a federal government promoting a target of 30 per cent organic must not allow this!"
The clear positioning of such a broad alliance of associations, which together represent over ten million members, is extraordinary and an important signal to the federal government to clearly reject GMO deregulation in Brussels.
BUND: Associations call for strict regulation of GMO (German)
Bauernstimme: 139 associations call for strict regulation of GMO (German)