Manifesto “Save our organics from Gmo-s”

The new “proposal for a Council regulation on Organic production and labelling of organic products” must guarantee that organic food and feed is kept free from GMOs. Public opinion values organic food as the product of a sustainable and healthy farming system, and as such, rejects the use of GMOs and GM contamination. Consumers trust the integrity of organic food, the production for which the exclusion of GMOs is an essential characteristic.

We are opposed to any thresholds for GMOs in organic food, as this would lead to the acceptance of accidental contamination. The new regulation has to preserve the right of farmers and consumers to grow and consume organic food and feed completely free of GMOs, as a fundamental prerequisite for sustainable agriculture, market competitiveness, consumer choice and food sovereignty.

We reaffirm:
Zero Tolerance: No contamination of organic food and feed: this is what both organic farmers and consumers want.
Coexistence is not possible: The new regulation is a barely disguised attempt to undermine resistance on the coexistence and seed contamination debate: if GM contamination up to 0.9% in organic products is not labelled, coexistence rules will be set accordingly. Vice versa, if the integrity of organic production is reaffirmed, coexistence rules will have to be set up to respect this. The same applies to organic and conventional seeds, which must be kept free of contamination . The role of European institutions is to guarantee to organic farmers and consumers that the most dynamic agricultural sector will maintain one of its essential characteristic: absence of GMOs. Taking precautionary approaches and setting polluter pays schemes are general principles enshrined in EU law, which, together with effective liability systems we support and advocate.

Coherence to CAP reform: Organic farming is the most coherent interpretation of the CAP philosophy, aiming at a European agriculture model based on environmental sustainability and market competitiveness. Accordingly, the Regulation on organic agriculture should support the market oriented pillar of organic farming and not assimilate it to conventional farming.

A GMO-free organic food basket Taking into account the current GMO authorisation system, the GM contamination threat to organic food is limited to soybean and maize (mostly imported). However, the 15-billion-euro sector’s turnover is based on a broad range of products: cereals, oil, wine, fruits and vegetables, where there is no current risk of contamination. The organic food basket is thus in practice free from GMOs and a general threshold set in the normative framework of all organic farming will hinder public perception of the whole offer.

We ask
the European Parliament: to clearly state that “In this Regulation the labelling threshold for GMOs as defined in Directive 2001/18/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 March 2001 on the deliberate release into the environment of genetically modified organisms1 shall not apply”, as unanimously proposed by the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee of the EU Parliament.
the EU Council: to develop, in coherence with the CAP, a clear and coherent normative framework for organic agriculture ensuring the absolute exclusion of GMOs and GM contamination and the establishment of liability legislation for transgenic agriculture.