Poland Finally Gets to Ban Monsanto Maize
Poland has become the eighth member of the EU's 27 states to ban the cultivation of genetically modified (GM) crops.
Seven other EU member states have already imposed bans on the cultivation of GM crops approved by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) as safe: Austria, France, Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg, Greece and Bulgaria.
Poland along with many other states have been trying to do this for at least 5 years with little success until now, in 2008 European Commission lawyers stopped Poland's move to ban trade and plantings of genetically modified (GMO) seeds, saying it had no scientific justification.
In the UK : the Church of England has refused permission for GE crop trials on 60,000 hectares of its land, dozens of local authorities supply GE free school lunches.
The House of Commons banned GE foods for its catering as far back as 1998!..long before GMO was even considered a major health risk (these people aint stupid)
The vote of the Welsh Assembly to keep Wales GE free was counteracted by the ministry of Agriculture approving a GE maize variety. The Island of Jersey banned GE crops.
Israel: A heavy user of GMO (although most it's people do not seem to know this fact)
has strangely enough been suffering from plagues of oversized locust for quite a while and has not banned GMO, but are getting around the above problem in an ingenious way!
Italy: The four regions Tuscany, Molise, Lazio and Marche and around 25 provinces, cities and communes banned GE crops, including Rome, Milan, Turin, Brescia and Genoa.
These are all democratically-taken decisions in local or regional councils and in the case of Tuscany, the result has been ratified by the national government - the decision means that regional governments have been given the authority under Italian law to overturn decisions taken at EU level.
Austria: Bans on three GE maize (Novartis, Monsanto and AgrEvo), the Federal Institute for Less-Favoured and Mountainous Areas is pressing for GM free legislation and published a study on GE-free zones, initiatives in the States of Vorarlberg and Salzburg to ban GE
trials.
France: ban of PGS and AgrEvo HR rapeseed
Germany: Ban of Novartis Bt maize. The initiative "No GE on communal land" of BUND (Friends of the Earth Germany) launched activities in several German communities to discuss and vote on the GE-free resolutions. Application are launched in: Bad Vilbel, Blauenstein, Lahr, Konstanz, Hannover, Hamburg. Application are accepted in: M¸nchen, Reutlingen, Freidrichsdorf, Blomberg, Seligenstadt, Niddatal, Maintal, Riedstadt, Adendorf, Schwebheim, Pinneberg, Schwabach, Langenhagen, Wyhe, Burgdorf, Neetze, District Traunstein.
Several protestant regional church organisations: banned GE crops from their land: Hannover, Hessen und Nassau, Sachsen, Protestantic Church of Westfalen, Protestantic Church in Berlin-Brandenburg, Church Province of Sachsen.
Luxembourg: Ban of Novartis Bt maize.
Portugal: Ban of Novartis Bt maize.
Greece: Ban of AgrEvo HR rapeseed, moratorium of GE crop trials.
Spain: The Basque Government went for a five year blanket moratorium for GMOs. The Basque Government claims full powers for agricultural policy and thus that they can provisionally ban GMOs if they so wish. The three provinces of Castilla-La Mancha and Baleares banned GE food, AndalucÌa declared a five year moratorium on GE
crop trials and GE food.
OTHERS
Switzerland: Ban on GMO crops Although Switzerland's move does not ban research on genetically modified organisms, the group said it feared it would deter companies from making further investment.
Norway: Banned the import of several GE crops and products which contain antibiotic resistance genes.
Australia: The State of Tasmania banned GE rapeseed as weed, Western Australia has banned commercial GE planting. Australian States are given the right to declare themselves GE free. Some communities (e.g. Bondi/Sydney, West Wimmera Shire) declared
themselves GE free.
New Zealand: Some local bodies in Auckland and Wellington have declared themselves GM free. Trials with GE salmon have been blocked by the government.
Thailand: Banned imports of 40 GE crops for commercial planting, but not for research purposes.
Philippines: The community of Valencia called for a five-year moratoria on GE food and GE crop trials and commercialization.
The Philippine president announced a moratorium on GE crop research.
Saudi Arabia: Banned food that are made from GMOs and declared not to import GE wheat.
Egypt: Declared not to import GE wheat.
Algeria: Banned the import, distribution, commercialisation and utilization
of GE plants except for research purposes.
Brazil: Planting GE seeds is prohibited by federal law in Brazil for the time being, the States of Rio Grande do Sul and Mato Grosso do Sul have declared their intentions to remain GM-free, 18 States called upon the Central government to block commercial GE crop planting.
Paraguay: The Ministry of Agriculture plans to ban GE crops from commercial planting.
Sources:
http://www.organicconsumers.org/gefood/countrieswithbans.cfm
http://www.greenprophet.com/2012/01/gm-in-israeli-food-lots-of-it/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/411509.stm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21847517
