Italy to Ban Monsanto GMO Corn with 80% Public Support
First India gives Monsanto a run for their ill-gotten money by refusing their patent applications, and now Italy, with the help of three Italian ministries, will try to undo Monsanto. A decree has been signed which will ban Monsanto’s MON810 maize, one of the two genetically modified crops currently legally grown in Europe and sold commercially. The decree is not yet binding as it has to be published in the official gazette, but the public stands behind the three Italian ministers who put forth the document with a resounding 80% against GMO and Monsanto, as evidenced in a public survey.
The agricultural ministry rightfully addressed one of many problems with Monsanto’s GMO crops, stating that they have a ‘negative impact on biodiversity.’ The ban was also signed by the health and environment ministries. That makes three. The ministries stated:
“Our agriculture is based on biodiversity, on quality, and those we must continue to aim for, without games that even from an economic point of view would not make us competitive.”
The three ministries have also notified the European Commission and other states in the EU about this important precedent-setting move to oust Monsanto from the world food supply monopoly that the company is currently trying to browbeat the world with. The ministries have also requested a scientific basis for the final decision from the European Food and Safety Authority – Europe’s version of the FDA, the country’s food safety watch dog.
Individual governments in the EU are able to introduce safeguards and recommendations if they feel the food supply is threatened, or there are environmental risks, however, the Commission must verify them and put them into action. Just last year French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayraul announced that the nation would maintain a key ban on the only remaining GMO currently allowed in Europe – the MON810 maize specifically.
“The protection of Italian distinctiveness must be a policy priority since it determines the existence of ‘Made in Italy’, which is our engine, our future, our leverage to return to growth in the food industry,” Coldiretti’s president, Sergio Marini, said in a statement.
Only five members of the European Union grew Monsanto’s MON810 maize last year, according to the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications. Hopefully with the Commission’s approval of this new ban, Italy will kick Monsanto and all GMO crops out of the country completely going forward.
So, I guess the Big "M" will be trying to declare war on Italy now. Soon people will start buying imported foods from Italy and other countries who have kicked the Big "M" to the curb. Stand firm Italy, we are with you!
Dear Christina,
As far as I know.. this is not a total ban. European countries have the right to some authority to not allow the growing of crops. But they have no way to ban imports which have been accepted by EFSA. And EFSA is allowing imports on a scale that is hurrying and frightening. Even Italy would have to comply with imports.
@MotherEarth. NO they will not fight Italy, they will just have it grown elsewhere and having it imported in Europe, based on international trade agreements.
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Video Revolt is coming July 24 , 2013. This is a list of the named places where Monsanto exists, on monsanto's website. All the Governments of these countries need to take action. Why, because the people are suffering whether they are working in these Monsanto farmlands or someone's pockets are getting heavy, therefore health is still questionable, who is safe? BRAVO to the Countries who are protecting their Farmer and their Citizen by standing up against the soon to be DWARF monsanto.
European descent into Dark Age ignorance continues apace
Posted on July 15, 2013 by admin
When the EU adopted the anti-science “precautionary principle” as its guiding paradigm a decade or more ago, we don’t think anyone (except perhaps its anti-progress advocates) had any idea how low the regulatory process would stoop in service of its ideology. This misguided concept asserts that any process or substance which has not been “proven safe” should be restricted or banned out of an excess of precaution, until such time as such proof can be obtained. The fact that “proving a negative” is impossible and unscientific is not taken into account, nor is the fact that if the principle is stringently applied, essentially all progress must come to a screeching halt.
The individual nations as well as the EU Parliament and its various bureaucratic commissions seem to be competing to outdo one another on how far to kowtow to superstition-based fears of chemicals, devices and technologies whipped into frenzies by agenda-driven activist groups. The current target of concern is the so-called “endocrine disruptor” group of chemicals, especially phthalates (plasticizers, softeners of PVC plastics in consumer and medical products). As we here at ACSH have often pointed out, the whole concept is fraught with the conflation of pseudo-science and politics, as in the worst-case scenario, these chemicals might impact the endocrine system of certain rodents at extremely high exposure levels. No human health effects have been documented, but fears of such has generated extreme anxiety among regulators “over there.”
This anti-science ferment has provoked (finally!) a group of almost 100 scientists, including journal editors and academics, to write an open letter to the Chief Science Advisor to the President of the EU Commission, castigating their “science” regulators’ seeming abandonment of well-known scientific principles and precepts of risk assessment and weight-of-evidence, in favor of pre-ordained hyper-precautionary agenda, on the subject of endocrine disruptor regulation.
The letter is entitled, Scientifically unfounded precaution drives European Commission’s recommendations on EDC regulation, while defying common sense, well-established science and risk assessment principles, where EDC represents endocrine disrupting chemicals. It is a scathing commentary on the sad state of science in Europe, to which anyone who has been following their policies on matters as variable as GMO agriculture and e-cigarettes will attest. The link here will take you to the journal, where the letter can be purchased, and it’s expensive. If you want a copy for personal use, email us here and we’ll send you one.
http://acsh.org/2013/07/european-descent-into-dar…
antiscience? take your head out of the sand, Monsanto is no different from the tobacco industry, using their money to cover up science. And if that wasnt bad enough there is the matter of them polluting the waters of Anniston Alabama with PCBs and Mercury. They dont even let their own employees' children consume GMOs! There are numerous studies in the NIH database showing how dangerous these chemicals are.
The US is always the last country to catch on, since industry employees work for the government and in the government and regulatory agencies (Michael Taylor, Clarence Thomas) and these companies bribe politicians to support their causes. It doesn't matter what they do, civilians have now taken it into their own hands to label GMOs
These products need to be labeled just like cigarettes are labeled and the only way this country will become a democracy again and rise up from its plutocratic malaise is with what the people are doing now, take the law into your own hands and make them label. Boycott and picket any and all companies that still sell products with GMOs and bovine growth hormone! The government and these bad companies need to fear us, not the other way around. Folks the activist movement is just getting started, and it's only going to get better from here, you can count on it!
A big thank you to Wikileaks and anyone else who exposes government, military and corporate corruption and puts money ahead of real science.
YES! Thank You for that welcome statement!
These products need to be labeled just like cigarettes are labeled and the only way this country will become a democracy again and rise up from its plutocratic malaise is with what the people are doing now, take the law into your own hands and make them label. Boycott and picket any and all companies that still sell products with GMOs and bovine growth hormone! The government and these bad companies need to fear us, not the other way around. Folks the activist movement is just getting started, and it's only going to get better from here, you can count on it!
Hey supermanalexthegreat. Your stammering words are ludicrous. That GMO crap is what DEMOCRACY (mobocracy) is all about. It's called capitalism, and all the capitalists are ordering this poison, and all of the orders are supported by the consumers who buy it.
It's akin to a mob taking something from another, and splitting it between themselves, then the BIG thief comes and takes all of their possessions. No honor between thieves.
Does the law not say "you reap what you sow"?
also in addition to all of the above even the American Medical Association wants no GMO products released until they are tested INDEPENDENTLY (not by Monsanto or Dow!)
You are such a goof!! Products already aren't approved with thousands of independent studies. That is why it takes so long to get them to market. 2,4-D beans have been around for about 10 years and they still haven't gotten final approval yet, although they are finally getting very close. Stop trying to scare people. Most people could care less if the food is labeled and the majority will still buy the gmos since it has been proven safe and organics have been proven to be only as nutritious NOT MORE SO, and the gmos will also be considerably cheaper.
Your cancer treatment considerably costly!
Time will tell, but if it ever does happen i'm sure it will have a lot more to do with the environment I I live then. The food I eat it be much more likely for the heart attack. Either way I betting I in the end I don't make it. But in the mean time I'm going to eat the nutritious great tasting low cost gmo grain fed w/rumensin beef and roundup ready sweet corn.
No I don't work for Monsanto, but I am in ag. I have read a lot of posts on this site and others and it is hard to believe some of these posts. If one didn't know better one would think this was a gathering of fiction writers.
You have to remember that the GMO crops must use the round-up spray insecticides that are only available from monsanto, ity is an attempt to make other agricultural products unusable and give monsanto a monopoly on seed and especially the insecticide market,which is why they are spreading their pollination to non GMO crops(for free) so that they also will have to use round-up insecticide to reach harvest. Perhaps the anti monopoly laws could be used to stop the use of the products if the health dept. is bought off.
Trust me, THEY know who Monsanto is! I bet at least half the world knows them and have heard the Crap that is out there!!! I AM here to make Sure EVERYONE knows and Hates Big M and I will Go to my grave fighting them until Big M is DEAD!
i’m sorry this made no sense to me at all
Monsanto GMO crops have extra genes to make them withstand the extremely strong insecticides that they use. Those insecticides will make it impossible to grow any other crops. So a farmer will only be able to use Monsanto products in that field. Unfortunately, there is also the problem of cross-pollination, so that Monsanto GMO genes appear in field harvests not using their seeds. Those farmers end up being sued into bankruptcy if they don’t pay licensing fees to Monsanto.
People in the USA has a limited knowledge of what Monsanto is doing. But in the EU we know exactly what they are and what they represent. They will NEVER get their way in Europe. Over our dead bodies!
Please do eat all the GMOs you want for as long as they’re allowed to be planted here. We won’t stop you. 🙂
Right….and your stammering words don’t make much sense. So I guess you’re even.
BTW, most people are NOT voluntarily buying this crap food; they don’t know they’re buying it because it’s not required to be labeled as such–even though it’s required in so many other countries. Biotech just happens to have a lot more trolls in the government here, unfortunately.
I suppose you think “real” science only includes those people who are swayed by the biotech industry…because as we all know, most studies supporting GMOs have come from biased sources.