Published: 07/09/2009 - Updated: 01/11/2017
While the European Union is against the planting of genetically modified seeds and GMOs in general, today, Spain is leading this type of cultivation: Aragon and Catalonia are the communities with the highest number of plantings. Thus we can say that there are now more genetically modified plants than animals with corn, soybeans and cotton as major crops modified by man.
GM vs. hunger in the world
FromAvilés, in the summer course on Food Security at the University of Oviedo, Professor Alicia de Leon Arce believes that GM foods won’t end hunger in the world. " They also spoke about the vision for GM by the World Health Organization and also of nanotechnology, "perhaps the most dangerous, because it is the one under investigation," she warned.
Within her submissions in the course, the professor pointed out the importance of a clear February 18, 2009 signed by environmental groups to be joined by Nobel Prize Vandana Shiva. Through this document, requested the Spanish Government to abandon its support for genetically modified organisms. The manifesto, published in Madrid, indicated that after eleven years of cultivation was found that the seed used do not provide the promised profits to the biotech industry.
Regarding the issue, the department responsible for the Greenpeace anti-GM Juan-Felipe Carrasco stated that GM is not designed to produce more, but to guarantee the sale of chemicals. According to the expert, in some transgenic products, there are several controversies: "It is a lie that is the solution to hunger, because it is a type of technology, to target food production in the hands of a few large multinationals, it destroys the traditional model and introduces a new chemical dependency. GM contributes to the production of starvation and destruction of food sovereignty. "
Another issue challenged by the spokesman for Greenpeace has a relationship with the largest production capacity for GM, Carrasco sentenced: "It is true that GM produces more, it is propaganda of corporate marketing. They are not designed to produce more, but to guarantee the sale of chemicals from the companies themselves. " A good example of this dynamic is the LL62 rice (Bayern), gluzosinato resistant, chemical compound that will be banned next year. Carrasco concludes that the essential concept is to eradicate hunger redistribution: "Hunger does not depend on the production but of access to food.”
Catalonia: upcoming referendum on transgenic
Since the Initiative per Catalunya Verds (ICV), its general secretary, Joan Herrera, raised recently to conduct a referendum that Catalans think about the GM crop is approved once the future law of popular consultations.
Herrera criticized Catalunya has been declared by Parliament as "a country free of GMOs," as looking for a Popular Legislative Initiative (PLI) that the camera Catalan rejected with the votes of the PSC, CiU and PP. In this sense, he has stated that "there is a wide gap between what was approved in the Catalan Parliament and what the people want."
In this way, wish to use the eco-future consultations Act to advance their positions on two issues in which ICV-EUiA himself last week of its partners in government in Catalonia, but it decided to remain in the Government tripartite.
Sources: greenpeace.com
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Well this topic is kind of hard to discuss because many people think that producing more means that more people will have food but that means destroying many environments and depending on substances instead of nature which is bad at several levels, I really support natural production but I think that many people are confused about this
I agree with Helen that there is a LOT of confusion about what GMO’s really are. People who say they are opposed to GMO’s go to the store and purchase their organically grown GMO varieties of beautiful broccoli, and corn, and all sorts of other fruits and vegetables. Truth be told, I have only seen ONE true non-GMO piece of produce in stores EVER! And they were ugly little heirloom tomatoes that nobody touched. If we really want to avoid non-GMO foods, we need to learn what they are…and a lot of times they are “uglier” varieties than we’re used to.