Save our Seeds

The European Commission had presented a revised version of it`s draft Directive regarding contamination of seeds with GMOs beginning of July. It intended to have an "indicative vote" on this draft in the Standing Committee on Seeds on July 18th. However after intervention of Members of the European Parliament this vote has been postponed. The MEPs argued that the Commission had to first await the results of the Regulations on GMO Food and Feed labelling in order not to contradict them.The thresholds for adventitious contaminiation of seeds, which the Commission proposes (0,3% for rape seed, 0,5% for maize and beet and 0,7% for soja) could not guarantee that a maximum threshold of 0,5% for adventitious contamination of food and feed can be observed. The EP had voted in favour to setting such reduced thresholds at it`s plenary session on the 3rd of July.In it`s revised draft the Commission did not change the thresholds but only deleted detailed provisions how breeders should avoid contamination. The draft is available upon request from info@zs-l.de.

The EP will vote on the reports below on Wednesday, July 3rd. The plenary discussion will take place on Tuesday, 2nd. At stake will be the future labelling and approval requirements for GMO in food and feed as well as general rules on traceability and thresholds of GMO.REPORT on the proposal for a European Parliament and Council regulation on genetically modified food and feed (COM(2001) 425 - C5-0368/2001 - 2001/0173(COD))Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Policy, Rapporteur: Karin ScheeleREPORT on the proposal for a European Parliament and Council regulation concerning traceability and labelling of genetically modified organisms and traceability of food and feed products produced from genetically modified organisms and amending Directive 2001/18/EC (COM(2001) 182 - C5-0380/2001 - 2001/0180(COD)) Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Policy, Rapporteur: Antonios Trakatellis<a href="http://www2.europarl.eu.int/omk/OM-Europarl?PROG=AGENDA&L=EN&LEVEL=2&NAV=S&PUBREF=-//EP//TEXT+AGENDA+20020702+SIT+DOC+SGML+V0//EN">Draft agenda - Tuesday 2 July 2002</a>

The North Atlantic Free Trade Association`s environmental commission said Thursday it would investigate reports of transgenic corn growing in southern Mexico, responding to concerns that imported corns have contaminated native crops. Scott Vaughan, head of the economy and trade division of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), said genetically modified corn was a "huge issue" for Mexico and warranted additional investigation.</p><p><a href="http://www.zs-l.de/gmo/download/mexican_corn_20062002.pdf">Reuters and Greenpeace press release</a>

Upon the initiative of the German delegation Environment ministers of the EU will discuss the implications of commercial GMO releases for the co-existence of conventional organic and GMO agriculture at their meeting next week.</p><p><a href="http://www.zs-l.de/gmo/download/env_council_2506.doc">Environment Council, German submission</a>

FIS and ASSINSEL, the World Seed Industry Organizations, have merged to International Seed Federation, ISF. At their first general assembly the organisation adopted a position paper on GMOs in Seeds. The first president is Dr. Christopher Ahrens, board-member of KWS Saat AG, Germany.</p><p><a href="http://www.worldseed.org/">FIS/ASSINSEL</a></p><p><a href="http://www.worldseed.org/merger.html">Merger</a>Deutsche Meldung:<a href="http://www.agroonline.de/nachrichten/personen/pages/show.prl?params=%26recent%3D1%26type%3D2&id=9863">AgroOnline - Nachrichten/Personen</a>

Full text of the Report on the proposal for a European Parliament and Council regulation concerning traceability and labelling of genetically modified organisms and traceability of food and feed products produced from genetically modified organisms and amending Directive 2001/18/EC(COM(2001) 182 - C5-0380/2001 - 2001/0180(COD)) Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Policy. Vote in the plenary session of the EP in July.</p><p><a href="http://www.zs-l.de/gmo/download/ep_env_traceandlabel.doc">Environment Committee Report as Doc file - 52 pages</a>

(June 13, 2002 - CropChoice news) - Todd Leake fears that genetically engineered wheat could contaminate North Dakota`s pure seed stocks, even before it`s available commercially for planting. He fears that wheat which Monsanto genetically engineered to resist the herbicide Roundup (glyphosate) could appear in the conventional varieties that the state`s farmers grow, because North Dakota State University is under contract with Monsanto to conduct nursery trials on the Roundup Ready wheat.</p><p><a href="http://www.cropchoice.com/leadstry.asp?RecID=748">CropChoice.com News</a>

Corn sent to Bolivia under the US food aid programme by USAID contained "Starlink" corn, which is prohibited for human consumption because of allergenicity concerns world wide. Also other GMOs have been detected in food aid corn, Friends of the Earth revealed.</p><p><a href="http://www.foe.org/foodaid/">Friends of the Earth : ILLEGAL GENETICALLY ENGINEERED STARLINK CORN CONTAMINATES FOOD AID</a>

Last week the EPs committee on Environment and Consumer Protection voted on nearly 600 amendments regarding two proposed EU regulations on GMOs:1. Regulation on traceability of GMOs, GM food, feed (COM(2002) 182),2. Regulation on genetically modified food and feed (COM(2001) 425).The Committee demands labeling of all GMO products, including animal products derived from GMO feeding, and a maximum threshold for labelling GMOs in food at 0,5%. It rejected any exemptions for unauthorised GMOs. The plenary of the EP will vote on the proposal in its July session.</p><p><a href="http://www.zs-l.de/gmo/downloads/ep_vote_foodfeed.pdf">Full debriefing on the Committees vote</a>

According to a press release issued by the Greek Ministry of Agriculture on June 5th, the PCR testing of all seed lots of cotton, maize, sugarbeet and tomato is over and the results are1. maize: 475 samples , 474 negative, 1 positive, the entire seed lot was destroyed2. tomato: 115 samples, all negative3. sugar beats: 19 samples, all negative4. cotton: 640 samples, 638 negative, 2 positive (the seed lots were re-exported).Interesting to note, that nearly half of the cotton seeds (approx 45%) were of US origin. In other terms there is plenty of clean seed.Nikos Charalambides, Greenpeace Greece