Broad protest against agro-genetic engineering

More than 100,000 people are calling for a ban on GM crops in the EU

11.05.2011

The alliance partners of Vielfalterleben did not expect such a clear result: More than 100,000 people support their vote in a public petition against agro-genetic engineering, whose subscription period ended at midnight last night. Only from 50,000 subscribers within three weeks, the Petitions Committee of the German Bundestag deals with the demands at a public hearing. For example, Felix Prinz zu Löwenstein, chairman of the Bund Ökologische Lebensmittelwirtschaft (BÖLW) and petitioner, will presumably be discussing a ban on cultivating genetically modified plants in the autumn in the committee in order to give impulses for corresponding European-wide legislative changes. "Brussels and the federal government want to bring GM crops to our fields that are not properly screened, and poor licensing practices make agro-genetic engineering a risky technology, with incalculable consequences for our health and the environment“, so Löwenstein.

Since the introduction of public petitions in 2005, so far only twelve petitions have reached 50,000 supporters in the first three weeks. "The exceptionally high response to our petition shows that people do not want genetic engineering in the fields or on their plates“, Götz E. Rehn, founder and CEO of Alnatura, initiator of Vielfalterleben. "The result must also be seen against the background that 18,000 to 19,000 petitions are submitted annually!“, Rehn emphasizes. Referring to the lively discussion of the petition with around 960 posts in the online forum on the petition website, Rehn says: "With diversity life we ​​wanted to encourage citizen participation and critical discourse in order to show the responsible politicians that Genetic engineering acute need for action there.“

Alnatura is instrumental in the Vielfalterleben initiative (www.vielfalterleben.info), whose main activity is the petition against agro-genetic engineering. The trading company has brought over 140 partners on board to join forces to send a clear signal to politics. The alliance partners from environmental and consumer protection, food production, processing and trade represent the genetic-critical majority of the German population: according to a recent survey of the Federal Environment Ministry in October 2010 reject 87 percent of the German green gene technology. (Pm)

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Picture: Ernst Rose