Bulgarians said NO to modified crops

[ensho]

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50411


BULGARIA: Govt Forced Down on Genetically Modifed Crops


Campaigning by environmental groups and the general public has weakened the determination of the Bulgarian government to allow the cultivation of genetically modified (GM) crops in this country.

In January 2010, the Bulgarian parliament voted, on a first reading, legislation allowing the release of GM organisms into the environment. But as the law awaited final passage, the Environmental Parliamentary Committee came under public pressure to accept a five-year moratorium on GM cultivation and a ban on testing near organic fields and beehives.

Environmentalists are now pushing for the new legislation to be dropped completely, rather than pass it with a five-year moratorium.

Bulgaria already has a 2005 law regulating GM crops, but national authorities recently declared it too restrictive and contradictory to European Union (EU) legislation to be competitive in the internal European market.

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According to tests conducted by the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency between 2004 and 2009, seven percent of Bulgarian foods were found to contain over 0.9 percent GM content without being labelled appropriately.

According to a report published by the European Greens in the European Parliament in September 2009, GM contaminated food products are likely already on the market in Bulgaria. ‘’Most of the GM maize harvested in 1999 and 2000 was probably used for animal feed and thus entered the human food chain, via meat and dairy products. The GM maize was not kept separate from the conventional crop,’’ the report said.

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"Seventy percent of arable land in Bulgaria is suitable for organic agriculture, while only five percent of the soil in other countries is clean enough," said Lyutvi Mestan, the deputy leader of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms, considered the voice of Bulgarian Turks. "We should not waste such a resource because of an absurd law."

A large proportion of Bulgarian Turks cultivate tobacco in southeastern Bulgaria. Fears that GM tobacco testing might be allowed in Bulgaria has in the past resulted in big tobacco producers such as Phillip Morris threatening they would halt their purchases from Bulgarian farmers.
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good. keep on saying NO.