Demand for new German government: safeguard GMO free products

Current seed evaluation shows that zero tolerance against GMOs works. Greenpeace, Bioland and IG Seed require to safeguard GMO free products. The new German government could become a so called Jamaica coalition from conservative CDU/CSU with liberal FDP party and the Green party. Greenpeace, Bioland organic farmers association and the interest group for GMO-free seed processing IG Seed are calling on the future federal government to anchor legal prohibition of cultivation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in the law. Also the new methods of genome editing such as Crispr-Cas must be classified as genetic engeneering there. The zero tolerance for unauthorized GMOs in the seed must also remain and the safety checks should be compacted.

"With new procedures, the breeders want to bring food from genetically manipulated plants and animals to our plates", says Jan Plagge, President of Bioland and further: "Our agriculture and consumers can only be protected by a comprehensive, practicable genetic engineering law that contains all methods of genetic manipulation."

GMO free seeds are the basis of GMO free production.

Zero Tolerance for Genetic Engineering in Seed

"Zero tolerance for genetic engineering in the seed is possible and must continue in the future - a new federal government should also make a clear commitment to this in the coalition agreement," says Stefanie Hundsdorfer from IG Saatgut. "At the same time there is a need for improvement in the density of the seed controls. Risk cultures such as rape, corn and soya should be the focus. We believe there is a need for more extensive sampling in order to be as safe as possible to prevent the placing on the market of contaminated seed. "

The current seed evaluation of Greenpeace, Bioland and IG seed produces pleasing results: All rapeseed and maize seed samples were free of genetic engineering in 2017. The competent authorities of the federal states were unable to detect any contamination for rapeseed crop for the fifth time in a row. They had tested 269 seed samples this year. After three contaminated samples in the previous year (2015 there were still six samples, 2014 eight loaded samples) this year, for the first time, the more than 500 samples of maize seeds were also free of genetic engineering. Only a single contamination with GMOs was found in Soybeans in Saxony, the affected batch did not enter the market.

"The success of the seed controls is, however, at stake, if new genetic engineering procedures should not be classified as" what is undoubtedly genetic engineering ", said Dirk Zimmermann from Greenpeace. By means of methods of the genome editing of manipulated, herbicide-tolerant rape is already cultivated in North America. In Europe, a decision is made as to how the new genetic engineering methods are to be treated legally. It is only when the new methods are classified as genetic engineering at European level that they have to undergo a comprehensive risk assessment and are subject to a legal requirement for traceability and labeling.