GMO PLANTING IN POLAND INEVITABLE DESPITE OPPOSITION
02.25.08 - Leído 51 veces. Enviar esta notaGabriela Baczynska and Chris Borowski
Poland’s recent lawsuit against a European Commission ruling on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) is a delaying tactic as planting of (GMO) seeds will have to be allowed, Farm Minister Marek Sawicki said on Monday
WARSAW, Poland; February 25, 2008.- Earlier in February the centre-right government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk sued the EC’s decision forbidding Poland to ban planting of GMO seeds to European Union’s second highest court.
But the government is split on GMO food.
Sawicki said it is crucial for farmers’ competitiveness on the European Union’s common market but admitted he was facing opposition from the environment ministry that points to moral aspects and the lack of social acceptance for GMO products.
“Poland sued the European Commission because we are gaining some time that way,” Marek Sawicki told Reuters in an interview.
“It is just tactics allowing us to change our law in the meantime.”
The current law in the European Union’s largest ex-communist member bans trade and planting of genetically modified seeds. But, at the same time, and in line with EU law, Poland imports GMO feeds and meat from countries using GMO animal feeds.
“As if grinding of GMO soy could hurt anybody,” Sawicki added.
Poland indicated recently it planned to lift the ban to comply with EU law but would still seek to make the GMO seeds planting as difficult as possible for local farmers.
Warsaw’s previous conservative administration amended the law on seeds and plant protection and as of August farmers who use GMO feeds on their farms — since farmers are also split on genetically modified food — will be forbidden to do so.
EU regulators launched earlier this year legal actions against Poland saying the ban contradicts the 27-nation block’s GMO policy, which says the ban cannot be politically motivated and must be — unlike Polish case — crop-specific.
“Biotechnological progress cannot be stopped but people’s mentality cannot be changed in one day either,” Sawicki said.
“It’s hypocrisy to say Poland is a ‘GMO-free’ country. But when it comes to GMO seeds planting, we have to be careful and protect Poland from it as long as anti-GMO psychosis and unawareness are this strong,” Sawicki said.
“But no matter the thames we build up, this water just cannot be stopped.”
(Reuters)
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