EU - GM free regions

EU - GM free regions

FRANCE GM FREE!

15 regions and 5 Departments and have issued declarations of a GM-free status:
Regions:

• Provence Alpes-Cote D'Azur
• Midi-Pyrennees
• Aquitaine
• Picardie
• Centre
• Pays-de-la-Loire
• Poitou-Charentes
• Nord-pas-de-Calais
• Bourgogne
• Limousin
• Rhône-Alpes
• Franche-Comté
• Basse-Normandie
• Bretagne
• Latest GMO-free region: Ile de France (28.10.2004)

Departments:

• Aples de Haute Provence
• Gers
• Cote D'or
• Dordogne
• Creuse

So far 44 areas in England have approved a GMO-free resolution during the campaign. Most of them have used the article 19 as a legal basis.
(see the campaign guide for legal tools)

 

Belgium

 

So far 39 communities in the Flemish speaking part of Belgium have declared themselves GMO free.

In the French speaking part of Belgium 81 communities have declared themselves GMO-free.

In the first year since it launch already 50 GMO-free zones have been set up by an alliance of more than 11 600 organic and conventional farmers. (see map below)

This represents 430 000 hectare of agricultural land. Adding woodland areas and nature protection sites near one million hectare in Germany lie within GMO-free zones.

 

Hungary

The following municipalities commit themselves to:

1. Declare the municipality a GMO-free zone
2. Follow a GMO-free policy in the services provided by the municipality
3. Enhance and support GMO-free agriculture with all the possible ways
4. Follow the new proposals for the authorization of new GMOs, and when consider it necessary will inform the GenTech Committee that the municipaility would want to be excluded from the scope of the authorization;
5. Control the cultivation of GM plants in the locally protected areas.
(the number after the municipality indicates which statement they committed to)

• Tápiógyöngye (5331 ha) 1-3
• Perenye 1-5
• Bakonygyirót 1-2
• Újudvar (17ha) 1-5
• Nemessándorháza (1115 ha) 2-5
• Olasz (600 ha) 1-5
• Balatonmáriafürdõ (270 ha) 1-5
• Balatonszemes 1-4
• Bicske (83 000 ha) 1-5
• Nick (1140 ha) 1-5
• Nagytilaj 1-5
• Gönyû 1-5
• Bosta 1-5
• Szenta (6446 ha) 1-5
• Magyarszentmiklós 1-5
• Somogytúr 1-5
• Zalaszentgyörgy (980 ha) 1-5
• Mihályi (16,29 km2) 1-5
• Magyarlukafa (1373 ha) 1-5
• Vének 3
• Kelebia (protected area) 1, 4-5
• Várpalota 1,3,5
• Balatonboglár 1-5
• Mezõhék (8982 ha) 1-5
• Hódmezõvásárhely (48 141 ha) 1-5
• Bakonyszentlászló 1-5
• Fenyõfõ 1-2
• Sormás 2-3
• Marcali 2-3, 5
• Petõháza 1-2

IRELAND

This conference is designed to inform policy makers in government, business, NGOs and the media about the political, economic, environmental, and health benefits of keeping the whole island of Ireland free of genetically modified (GM) seeds, food, animal feed, crops and livestock.

ITALY

15 out of the 20 Italian regions have banned GM crops: Tuscany, Abruzzo, Basilicata, Campania, Puglia, Trentino Alto-Adige, Umbria, Molise, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Lazio, Veneto, Liguria, Marche, Piemont and Emilia-Romagna (in the process of ratification are: Campania & Sicilia)

POLAND

The province of Podkarpackie (17, 926 km3, with 2,097 000 people), in South-East Poland, was the first Polish region which declared itself a GMO free zone.

European network of GMO-free Regions

Ten European regions (from 7 countries) have declared themselves 'the network of GMO free regions' on 4th November 2003. Co-ordinated by Upper Austria and Tuscany, a document asserting the right of regions to forbid GMOs within their territories was signed by the agriculture ministers of ten regions:

• Upper Austria (Austria)
• Tuscany (Italy)
• Aquitaine (France)
• Basque Country (Spain)
• Limousin (France)
• Marche (Italy)
• Salzburg (Austria)
• Schleswig-Holstein (Germany)
• Thrace-Rodopi (Greece)
• Wales (UK)

On 28th of April 2004, at the Ministerial Conference "Dialog on the future - GMcrops and Coexistence - What do Regions need?" 27-28 April in Linz (Austria), the network was joined by:

Switzerland

3 Cantons so far have effectively banned the commercial release of GMOS:

• In the Canton Ticino a law has been included into agricultural canton laws banning the cultivation of GMOs.
• In Canton de Vaud and Jura the canton parliaments have proposed similar laws. In canton Appenzell cultivation of GMO is banned in woodland areas.

The Swiss referendum initiative managed to collected 120 000 signatures to demand a 5-year-moratorium on GM crops.