Save Our Seeds

Photo credit: Irish_Eyes from morguefile.com

Inter Press Service - Biodiversity, already decaying fast as a result of climate change and intensive farming, is under further threat by genetic modification (GM) of seeds, says a leading German ecological activist.

Genetic modification of seeds is dangerous, "since it is at the beginning of the agricultural chain, and can spread all over," says Benedikt Haerlin, former campaign manager at the environmental organization Greenpeace and former member of the European Parliament.

Haerlin now leads the global ‘Save our Seeds' campaign in cooperation with some 300 environmental organizations across Europe.

The campaign is currently calling attention to plans by the European Commission (EC) to tolerate "accidental or technically unavoidable" contamination of conventional seed with GM varieties.

In September 2004, the EC sought to pass a directive allowing up to 0.7 percent of GM organisms (GMO) in maize and oilseed rape seed without being labeled.

But fierce protests by organic farmers and environmental organizations forced the EC to withdraw the proposal. Since then, EC has not submitted any new recommendations. Read more.