April 4, 2000 / Greenpeace Press Release
Madrid/Brussels -- Greenpeace today published information, which
shows that Spain is trying to pressure the Greek government to drop safety
measures that stop the spread of illegal, genetically engineered (GE) cotton
crops. Greenpeace demanded an immediate halt to both cotton and maize seed
imports from the US to prevent GE pollution.
The Spanish efforts to bully Greece into accepting contaminated US seed is
peculiar since they are exporting cottonseed to Greece, said campaigner
Ricardo Aquilar of Greenpeace. Instead of bullying others, the Spanish
agricultural ministry should check its own seed stock. In 1999, Spain
imported over 1000 tonnes of cottonseed from the US, the major producer of
GE cottonseed. Spain has also allowed test sites for growing GE cotton,
which further exacerbates the potential for genetic pollution.
In a letter to the Greek agriculture ministry (March 24, 2000), the Spanish
agriculture ministry states that a demand from Greece for a certificate
which would prove cotton and maize seed free of any GE contamination is a
trade barrier and should be dropped. The Greek ministry requested GE-free
labelling from all of cotton and maize seed providers after GE contaminated
cottonseed was found in Greece.
In its letter, the Spanish ministry refers to the EU seed marketing
directive and states that no labelling is needed, said Aquilar. However,
it conveniently ignores any reference to the EU directive governing the
deliberate release of GMOs, which expressively requires that any GE seed
must be approved before it can be planted and also that it is clearly
labelled.
We demand a complete halt on cotton and maize seed imports from the US
until this situation is resolved, said Aquilar. The European Commission
must take the necessary steps to force Spain to stop this unwanted
proliferation of GE contamination from happening.
(posted without permission)
