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[Romano]

Dear friends,

The European Commission has just approved growing genetically modified crops in the European Union for the first time in 12 years!

Caving to the GM lobby, the commission has ignored 60% of Europeans who feel we have to get the facts first before growing foods that could pose a threat to our health and environment.

A new initiative allows 1 million EU citizens to make official legal requests of the European Commission. Let's build a million voices for a ban on GM foods until the research is done; they will be delivered to the President Barroso of the European Commission. Sign the petition and forward this email to friends and family:

[iurl]http://www.avaaz.org/en/eu_health_and_biodiversity/98.php?CLICK_TF_TRACK[/iurl]

Consumers, public health, environmental and farmers groups have long rallied against a few international GM companies having such significant influence over European agriculture. Concerns about growing GM crops include: contamination of organic crops and the environment; their impact on climate due to the excessive need for pesticides; the destruction of biodiversity and local agriculture; and the effects of GM food on public health.

EU member states have voiced strong opposition to last week's decision to authorise BASF's potato and Monsanto's maize, including Italy and Austria, which want to ban GM cultivation, and France, which said it would ask for further scientific research.

There is still no consensus on the long-term effects of GM crops. And it is the GM industry, pursuing profits not public well being, that is funding the science and driving the regulatory environment. That is why European citizens are calling for more independent research, testing and precaution before crops are unleashed onto our land.

Now, the "European Citizens' Initiative" gives 1 million EU citizens the opportunity to submit policy proposals to the European Commission and offers us a unique chance to drown out lobbyists' influence.

Let's raise 1 million voices to put a moratorium on the introduction of GM crops into Europe and set up an independent, ethical and scientific body to research and determine the strong regulation of GM crops. Sign the petition now and then forward it widely:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/eu_health_an...CLICK_TF_TRACK

With determination,

Romano Krauth

[_r.u.s.s.]

i signed

[Himmler]

we're doomed anyhow. we(romania) are the first guineea pigs. first country who adopted the thing. well actually it was planned. kinda sucks though. good for me i can buy food from peasants who are not yet forced to use these kinds of things.

[The Fifth Horseman]

I have one comment, and it's this link.

[Panthro]

I work in genetics, and I'm not worried about this too much.

The problem is more with intensive farming methods and reductions in biodiversity from that.

The drops in biodiversity in farmed crops have been occurring for many years, and this can mean that a particular disease affecting a crop could cripple food production. Crippled food production in turn leads to rationing or starvation in extreme cases, or at least inflated food prices.

As for the need for more pesticides, some of these GM crops are being grown with the intention to use far less pesticides and artificial fertilizers. The environmental and public health impacts have the possibility of being reduced.

Of course, companies like Monsanto are far from trustworthy, so I wouldn't like to claim that GM foods are completely safe without more research (although there has been some research, the trouble is we need some large scale research, which means fields of GM crops being grown...).

Just because the companies that want to use such things are not trustworthy, doesn't mean you should automatically trust those in opposition. We must all be careful to weigh up the risks carefully, and make an informed choice whether we want GM foods or not.

[Luchsen]

Originally Posted by Panthro

I wouldn't like to claim that GM foods are completely safe without more research

Completely? Yeah, it's safe to play with things that had billions of years to develop. Man still doesn't understand the scope of damage he did/does with regular breeding and the extinction of "dangerous" "unneeded" animals (like wolves). Now, he wants to engage with mechanism he has no clue about. The problem with research and progress is: The further we come the more extensive are the consequences.

[Fubb]

Fifths comic scared me. I signed.

Also wolves arn't extinct yet. Theres lottsa wolves around my area in Manitoba. If anything we should be killing cougars and coyotes, specially the cougars. Our cougar population was installed by the government, and now we have 12+ cougars going around killing livestock and all that fun stuff >< cougars got killed for a reason... I don't like the idea of animals going extinct, but hey, it happens

[Luchsen]

I didn't mean that wolves are extinct completely, but they are rare which leads to a tilt of the ecosystems they populated before - the same goes for cougars, btw. And cougars don't have the practice that cattle has an owner, so you can't blame them for eating it. I don't want to rant about the it happens now...

I hate you, Fifth. I read that manga till now...

[nextinline]

i thought General Motors made cars, not mutated food

[Scatty]

Signed of course. No way I'm going to eat genetically modified food. They can eat it themselves.