Wales Announces Complete Ban on GMOs with 15 Other EU Countries
The Welsh Deputy Minister for Farming and Food, Rebecca Evans, has announced that the country will take advantage of new EU rules allowing countries to opt out of growing EU-authorized GM crops. Yep – Wales is moving forward with a complete ban on biotech’s seed! [1]
Evans says that the nation plans to ban GM corn as well as 7 other GM crops authorized by the EU. She states:
“These new rules proposed by the European Commission provide Wales with the necessary tools to maintain our cautionary approach by allowing us to control the future cultivation of GM crops in Wales. It will allow us to protect the significant investment we have made in our organic sector and safeguard the agricultural land in Wales that is managed under voluntary agri-environment schemes.”
She continued:
“Farming and food processing businesses remain the driving force of our rural economy. Our emphasis is on competing on quality, strong branding and adding value through local processing. We, therefore, need to preserve consumer confidence and maintain our focus on a clean, green, natural environment. By having the ability to control what is grown in Wales we can have confidence in preserving these values. I have therefore acted now to ban the eight GM varieties from being grown in Wales that are either approved or about to be approved for cultivation in the EU.
These crops have not been developed for Welsh growing conditions and would be of no real benefit to Welsh farmers at this time. I will of course keep this position under review and am keeping an open mind on future GM developments and more advanced genetic techniques.”
Meanwhile, in the US, Food Democracy Now has reported that the Senate Agriculture Committee has scheduled a hearing less than three weeks away — on Wed. Oct 21st, to try to pass its version of the DARK ACT, 1599. The House passed the DARK act in July; the act outlaws states’ rights to label GMOs. Forget bans in the US, we can’t even get correct labeling, thanks to Monsanto!
With the string of EU Countries banning GMOs, soon we’ll have to report on the stragglers who haven’t banned genetically modified organisms.
Sources:
[1] GreenPeace
Wow – a GMO loving specimen, who believes GMO will feed the world. The world has always fed itself! Greed in the form of killing animals for their flesh and dairy is what is starving the world!
Raising meat and dairy requires a LOT of water, energy and land to produce. Land that takes away from the poor to feed grain to the poor animals that are slaughtered to feed the fat and greedy countries! Statistics, on Google and Kathy Freston’s book ‘Veganist’…
Some people NEED meat to ensure that their microbiome and metabolism work optimally. Blood type O people need red meat to cleave calcium from their food intake to make it bio-available. That said, CAFO meats are toxic and I never eat them. I vote with my dollars and opt for pastured meats.
Strange, I have been married to a type O Veggie for years, and he is now 69 and healthier than most meat eating people! The meat eating ones are shrinking in height, probably because meat and dairy make the body acidic which in turn leaches calcium from the bones, it’s a fallacy created by the meat and dairy industry that you need it to survive. Far safer to get your protein from other sources including many green leafy veg like kale and swiss chard,,, superfoods….. tofu, nuts, seeds, brown rice and lentils make a whole protein.
Normally I would agree with you since I used to be (in HS) a vegetarian for philosophical reasons. So it was very difficult for me to go back to eating meats. But I am careful about how the animals are cared for. Tofu and lentils make me ill, as does dairy but sprouted nuts and seeds are very prominent in my present diet.