A change is as good as a holiday

But does that cliché still apply when the change is so intrinsic that it may just change your genetic makeup? The genetic makeup of your food? And what are the implications for the future if small sectors start mutating will the rest follow?
Extreme you cry? Sensationalising an issue that could be solving (if we want to believe the big corporate) both food security and AND our fuel problems in one fell swoop?
I’m not sure.
Last week I had the pleasure of eating some organic tapas on the nature strip that lies between the European Council building and the European Commission on a very bright sunny day and watched a Thai farmer come all the way to Brussels to hand a petition to European Commission Health Commissioner Androula Vassiliou asking her to consider not allowing any more GM rice in Europe.
“I do base all of our responses on such primarily important issues as GM foods on science. The scientific advice that we receive is from the highest authority on this which is EFSA in Parma. I have not seen any scientific evidence that suggests that GM is not a good answer but I have taken all that you have given me into consideration and I will seriously take this petition handed to me today into serious consideration,” the Commissioner for Health said.
On Thai rice Friends of the Earth Europe have been campaigning since 2007 to make as many people aware of the situation as possible. A press release Since the United States Department of Agriculture USDA announced on 18 August 2006 that the unauthorised GM rice LL601 had entered the food chain in the US a growing number of cases of GM rice contamination have come to light in Europe. The rice (produced by Bayer) has not been approved in the US or in Europe and has not undergone any official assessments to determine its health or environmental impact.
Shortly after a second illegal rice (an experimental variety from China referred to as Xianyou BT63) was found in food supplies throughout Europe.
Cases of contamination with a third GM rice - Liberty Link 62 (LL62) - have been detected by French authorities.
Greenpeace who hosted the tapas a la Europa at Schuman last week said that farmers are bringing the issue of genetically modified (GM) crop contamination right to the Commission’s front doorstep. They are meeting European Commissioner for health, and joining Greenpeace in handing over a petition signed by 180,000 people to stop the authorization of Bayer GM rice.
The farmers, from Spain, Sweden and Thailand, are sharing testimonies ‘from the field’ of the destructive effects of GM contamination, and contrasting it to their successful experiences with natural farming.
“We have already seen how GM maize is threatening the environment and the livelihoods of farmers. If the Commission authorizes the import of Bayer’s rice and other GM crops, the world’s major staple foods will be at risk,” said Marco Contiero, Greenpeace EU agriculture policy director.
“Organic maize may disappear because of GM crops. My experience with maize is that pollen travels more than the Spanish agriculture ministry’s studies say it does and is contaminated much more often than reported. In my case, the closest maize is 500 meters from my field - it is not GM, nevertheless my crop has been contaminated,” said Eduardo Campayo García, organic farmer in Albacete, Spain.
How will we actually know what goes on our plate?

Email Alia Papageorgiou on alia@neurope.eu or follow her on twitter @eurocentrique