Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-11-20-Speech-3-377"
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"en.20021120.12.3-377"2
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"Mr President, I should like to send my greetings to Mrs Damião in her absence and to wish her a speedy recovery. I disagree, however, with her report, which her colleague Carlos Lage, has presented to us: it should be noted that this report transcribes in their entirety the positions and interests of the huge biotechnology, agro-chemical and agro-industrial multinationals, as can be seen if we compare the report with the position of UNICE. We call for the de facto moratorium that has been in place since 1998 for the approval of new genetically modified organisms in the food chain to be maintained and we totally reject the report’s support for lifting the moratorium, which we feel would be a real environmental crime.
Apart from the profound ethical and human rights questions about the commercialisation and patenting of life and natural heritage, we must understand that releasing GMOs into the environment is an irreversible and uncontrollable factor which has direct consequences on the pollution of both conventional and organic farming, and for the destruction of biodiversity. It also has incalculable effects on ecosystems. What this means is that organic farmers and consumers will not actually see this much vaunted but fictional freedom of choice. Furthermore, it reinforces the dependency of farmers and of Member States’ food policies on the multinationals. The degree of interference and pressure exerted on developing countries to introduce GMOs into their food chain is shocking. It is truly mystifying and unacceptable that, once again, the idea is being aired that food shortages and world hunger can have a technological solution when the issue – as has been stressed in many international fora and organisations – is a political one and is a matter of policy. We only need think back to the much-feted ‘green revolution’ of a few decades ago. We are committed to promoting the scientific and technological progress of mankind, but we must always respect the precautionary principle."@en1
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