Bavaria Signs Agreement to Go GMO Free

Posted on Apr 28 2014 - 3:32pm by Sustainable Pulse

Germany’s Bavaria region has become the 62nd GMO Free farming area in Europe. The Munich-based Bavarian Environment Minister Dr. Marcel Huber, signed the GMO Free agreement in Brussels, with the President of the European GMO Free network, Maura Malaspina, the Environment Minister for the Marche region of Italy.

Source: www.topagrar.com

Bavaria is the 62nd member of the network, which includes regions from nine EU Member States, including 18 regions of France, 13 regions from Italy and all the states of Austria.

Fact Box Bavaria: The Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast. With an area of 70,548 square kilometres (27,200 sq mi), it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany. Bavaria is Germany’s second most populous state (after North Rhine-Westphalia), with 12.5 million inhabitants. Bavaria’s capital and largest city is Munich, the third largest city in Germany.

“62 regions  have stated: We reject gene technology from our fields. For our demand for self-determination, we need allies in Europe. The agreement is a clear political commitment and highly symbolic for the people of Bavaria,” Huber said at a GMO Free network meeting.

“The vast majority of the population is against genetic engineering in agriculture, risks were not sufficiently clarified. Bavaria stands for high quality regional and seasonal foods. Plant biotechnology is incompatible with the sensitive natural areas and small-scale agricultural structure of the Free State,” Huber continued.

Huber also warned against the EU aligning with the U.S position on genetic engineering in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) in the context of the ongoing negotiations. “We have therefore asked the German Federal Government to push in the negotiations, our high standards for the protection of humans and the environment,” Huber concluded.

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6 Comments so far. Feel free to join this conversation.

  1. ALLISON LANSBERRY April 29, 2014 at 09:55 - Reply

    I wish the USA would go GMO free or at least require labeling. This country is ruled by Big oil & corporations just out for a profit.

    • Nick April 29, 2014 at 14:05 - Reply

      Vermont just passed legislation to become the first state to require GMO labeling. Additionally, the states of Maine and Connecticut previously passed laws that required an additional state in the region to enact a stand-alone law(like the one just passed in Vermont) to require GMOs to be labeled.
      So by Summer 2016, three US states should have required GMO labels. But beware Monsanto has already started to lobby to federal officials to take away the states right to make laws regarding GMO
      labels.

  2. La May 1, 2014 at 01:12 - Reply

    Great news!!!
    I wish the US would do this!!!!!
    But Unfortunately the almighty dollar rules here. 🙁
    Cancer patients in America are just now learning that they should eat all non-GMO products. Actually for some of us here in America we’ve known for a long time because we work with doctors here that have been practicing the same alternative treatments that you do in Europe that work!!
    It’s a sad state of affairs here in the US. I never thought I’d say this, but I’m really disgusted with our country.

    • Deb May 2, 2014 at 00:15 - Reply

      What cancer patients are being told to avoid GMOs? I’d be hard-pressed to find an oncologist over here who would suggest such a thing, and that’s the type of doctor most people still see for cancer. Nutritional training in this country is pathetic, and they certainly aren’t learning anything about avoidance of pesticides and GMOs–not if they’re in a conventional medical school. If people are learning of such things, it’s because they found the information on their own, or a friend or family member said something–and quite frankly, that’s pitiful. Our doctors should be the ones telling their patients these things (and much more). They’re too busy peddling drugs, though. 🙁

  3. wallace May 2, 2014 at 23:19 - Reply

    The corporations only do what the corrupt politicians let them do…bribery is only successful if the money is accepted. If the politicians in the u.s. were representatives instead of rulers, we would be citizens and not subjects.

  4. Joe May 3, 2014 at 20:40 - Reply

    I think if we just do some guerilla marketing ourselves we can make stickers and stick them on items we have done research on. just a suggestion what do you guys think?

    I mean if it saves the future…. I don’t see why we shouldn’t try doing something now. rather than just waiting…

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