Spain: the cultivation of transgenic maize vs. the ecological

The situation of GMOs in Spain is going through a bad time and will need to make urgent changes. As in the last year, were grown some 80,000 hectares of transgenic maize in the country.
In the framework of the World Day against GMOs, environmental organizations like the COAG, the Solidarity Collective Action (CAS), Ecologists in Action, Entrepueblos Greenpeace and Platform Rural Spain grew last year, nearly 80,000 hectares of transgenic maize.

During April, many collective mobilizations occurred throughout the country. These protests and information activities and demands were held on the street, in supermarkets, experimental agricultural fields, conferences and lectures, film screenings, debates and meetings with stakeholders.

According to data from environmentalists, Aragon is the Spanish region most GM crops from a total of 79,269 hectares of commercial cultivation in 2008, 21,857 were planted in this region. "These crops are less than 25 percent of the total area of maize in Spain, to undertake all other conventional maize crops, organic and traditional," he argues.

With regard to the planting of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), Spain has ten campaigns experience in maize crops, the only plant approved for cultivation in the EU. 110,000 that have been planted in 2007 in the Union, belong to Spain 75,000 (21% of the entire national corn). There are about 10,000 farmers who planted this Spanish maize. In the world, this technology applied to different crops is a very well received and the area planted in 2007 by some 12 million farmers over 114 million hectares.

Spain and organic agriculture

Ecological agriculture, which began in Spain in the 90s, has had its boom in the last five years grown at present the national million hectares (16,000 farmers), of which about 10% relate to Aragon (800 farmers).

The main crops are cereals, legumes, vegetables, fruit, etc. Spaniards spend less than 1% of their budget on food than in those 80% to Germany, Holland, France, United Kingdom. The culture conflict is that the corn does not reach the ecological thousand throughout Spain, or around 0.20% of the total.

The shortage of cereals in the world market and the dramatic price increase, in the case of maize in January-07 January-08 was 50%, now had a raw material for over 10 years that has contributed prices, hardly around, the production costs of the farmer, and now eagerly looking for food markets, energy, etc. ..

Corn plant native to America, not in Spain within the plant "close relatives" which makes it incompatible to pollinate natural plant species and therefore the risk of cross-pollination of plants other than corn, is null (which is almost never mentioned and that is impossible, as they say, a "pollution" generally).

Bt maize has been modified in a gene-compared with more than 30,000 plant-which has to be the scourge of auto-defense drill, so that when the caterpillar attack and bite the plant will die without having to use insecticides to control. Despite this protection, the plant is harmless to wildlife or even for adult butterflies of the scourges of the drill.

This development should be promoted for others who seek for consumers in particular and society in general with tremendous benefits at affordable prices without relying on third countries whose health guarantees may be at least questionable.

Source: Ecoticias.com / Antama.

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