Archives: Press Releases

Albuquerque Memorial Calls For Statewide and National Labeling of GMOs

Categories

Food

Albuquerque, New Mexico — This week, City Councilman Isaac Benton, District 2, and co-sponsor Diane Gibson, District 7, introduced a memorial in the Albuquerque City Council that would support labeling of genetically engineered foods (GMOs) on a statewide and national level. The memorial was drafted with the support of the national consumer advocacy group Food & Water Watch and is strongly backed by a diverse coalition of over 50 organizations and businesses in New Mexico including the La Montanita Food Coop, Dragon Farm, ProgressnowNM and Marchers Against Monsanto.

If passed, Albuquerque will join the city of Santa Fe in supporting giving people more transparency about whether or not their food contains GMOs. Since most processed foods contain some derivative of GMO corn, soybean or cotton, the city of Albuquerque would support labeling under this memorial.

“Labeling will give us the data we need to draw solid conclusions about GE foods, and it will give consumers the ability to make fully informed decisions about what we are eating and feeding our families,” said memorial sponsor Benton. “Right now, the companies that stand to profit from genetic engineering are making those decisions for us.”

GMOs are plants altered in a laboratory with foreign genetic material to create novel genetic combinations and exhibit traits that do not occur in nature. Although health risks associated with eating GMOs are not fully understood, these altered foods have become pervasive within our food system since they first became available in 1996. Companies submit their own safety testing data and independent research is limited because biotechnology companies prohibit cultivation for research purposes.

“It’s our right as citizens to know what is in our food,” said memorial co-sponsor Gibson. “In a democracy, corporations should not have special privileges that make it difficult for the average consumer to have transparency in what they consume. Labeling will give us the data we need to draw solid conclusions about GMO foods, and it will give consumers the ability to make fully informed decisions about what we are eating and feeding our families.”

Labeling GMOs is not a novel idea. Citizen-led campaigns have been successful getting legislation introduced in more than 20 states and ballot initiatives in California and Washington were narrowly defeated by multi-million-dollar campaigns waged by big food corporations. For years, polls have shown that the majority of Americans want genetically engineered foods labeled, just as it is in more than 60 other countries including the entire European Union, China, Japan and Russia.

“The impact of genetically engineered foods goes beyond consumer health. It also threatens the livelihood of farmers that grow non-GMO crops since GMO seed and the GMO-related pesticides can contaminate neighboring fields,” said Eleanor Bravo, Southwest Organizer for Food & Water Watch. “Consumers should be able to decide for themselves if genetically engineered foods should be fed to their families.”

The memorial will be heard in the Finance & Government Operations Committee on April 28. Once it passes this committee, it will head to the full City Council for a vote in May. The memorial can be viewed here: http://fwwat.ch/Q5nToN

Contact: Eleanor Bravo, ebravo(at)fwwatch(dot)org, 505-633-7366

Spate of New Research on Fracking Shows We (still) Know Very Little About its Impacts

Categories

Water

Brussels – Recent research results on the impacts of fracking show that the large-scale exploitation of shale gas and other unconventional fossil fuels has been allowed to move ahead without properly monitoring its impacts. Researchers – regardless of their discipline –  who want to study the impacts of fracking on the climate, water and air quality or public health are confronted with the reality that no systematic data-gathering has occurred where fracking is allowed to proceed. Scientists whose work was published in journals like Marine and Petroleum Geology, Climatic Change, The Lancet and The Medical Journal of Australia all come to similar conclusions, namely that publicly available data are scarce to non-existent. This lack of data allows the fossil fuel industry to maintain their speaking point of ‘no data, no problem’ and ‘no reported cases of groundwater contamination due to fracking’. For countries where fracking is allowed to proceed – despite the growing body of evidence of the negative impacts -, Food & Water Europe has long insisted that authorities need to establish strategic monitoring programmes to allow for the early identification of negative impacts on air, water and public health.

“The lack of publicly available data about the impacts of fracking from the US and the complete absence of a strategic monitoring capability in EU Member States for the fracking industry exposes European citizens and their environment to a broad range of risks”. said Food & Water Europe policy officer Geert De Cock. “The precautionary principle should compel the EU and its Member States to impose an immediate moratorium on fracking and unconventional fossil fuels”.

In January 2014, the European Commission launched a non-binding recommendation “minimum principles for the exploration and production of hydrocarbons (such as shale gas) using high volume hydraulic fracturing”. These minimum principles also emphasize the importance baseline data, continuous monitoring and transparency. Unfortunately, the European Commission’s recommendation puts the responsibility for monitoring the impacts of fracking mainly with the operator and shies away from obliging Member States to organise their own, frequent and unaccounted visits of the – typically, very numerous – well pads for unconventional oil and gas drilling. The recommendation also fails to outline credible sanctions for operators that fail to comply with these recommendations. Last but not least, it remains unclear how the European Commission will enforce this non-binding recommendation on recalcitrant Member States.

Contact: Geert Decock tel. +32 (0)2 893 10 45, mobile +32 (0)484 629.491, gdecock(at)fweurope.org

European Commission fails to take real steps towards the recognition of the Human Right to Water

Categories

Food

The European Water Movement regrets that the European Commission decided not to take real actions, ignoring 1,9 million citizens

Brussels – The European Commission (EC) made public today the communication on the European Citizen’s Initiative on the Right to Water. The communication fails to respond to 1,9 citizens asking for a legislative provision excluding water and sanitation from “internal market rules” and liberalization. The EC’s reaction is lacking in real legislative proposals, and it boils down to a compilation of already ongoing actions plus the announcement of a public consultation on the drinking water directive whose outcomes will not be binding.

While the Commission acknowledges the importance of the Human Right to Water and Sanitation and it confirms water as a public good, the EC fails to propose legislation that recognizes this right. The Commission also commits to promote universal access to water and sanitation in its development policies, including the promotion of public-public partnerships.

Water and sanitation services were excluded from the concession directive thanks to public pressure, but the Commission has not committed in its Communication to explicitly exclude these services from the trade negotiations (such as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership – TTIP).

The answer of the European Commission to the first European Citizen’s Initiative (ECI) to achieve the required support will not reassure European citizens who question the democratic legitimacy of the European institutions. The European Water Movement (of which Food and Water Europea makes part) considers that overall the Communication does not address the actual demands to guarantee the Human Right to Water and Sanitation, and implies a bad precedent for the future of the ECI mechanism.

Water privatization remains a very concrete menace in the EU. In countries like Greece and Portugal, the Troika is pushing for water privatization, and more and more citizens are being deprived of water access in municipalities where water supply is managed by private companies. In line with the signatures collected for the Initiative, citizens are fighting against water privatization across the EU, with many examples of massive mobilizations in Italy with the 2011 binding referendum, the local consultations in Madrid and Berlin, more recent mobilizations in El Puerto de Santa María (Spain) and upcoming local public consultations in Thesaloniki (Greece) or Alcazar de San Juan (Spain). 

Water should be a commons, not a commodity. The European Citizen’s Initiative expected the European Commission to propose legislation implementing the Human Right to Water and Sanitation as recognized by the United Nations, and to promote the provision of water and sanitation as essential public services for all. The European Water Movement will continue to support local struggles in places such as Thesaloniki or Alcazar de San Juan to ensure that water is declared a common good. And it will remind candidates in the elections for the European Parliament of the importance of recognizing that water is a human right, to concretely act towards its implementation and to avoid liberalization and commodification of water and sanitation services. 

For more information:

David Sanchez, dsanchez(at)fweurope.org, +32 485842604

Caterina Amicucci, camicucci(at)recommon.org +39 3498520789

The European Water Movement is an open, inclusive and pluralistic network of movements, social organizations, local committees and unions whose goal is to reinforce the recognition of water as a commons and as a fundamental universal right, an essential element for all living beings. We are part of the global water justice movement. We are united to fight against privatisation and commodification of this vital good, and to construct a public and communal management of water, founded on the democratic participation of citizens and of workers.

www.europeanwater.org

UK GM Report: Vested Interests Miss the Point

Categories

Food

Statement from Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter

Brussels—“Food & Water Europe dismissed today’s United Kingdom report calling for more GM trials in the UK as “a chronically flawed effort from blinkered vested interests. The UK’s pro-GM government asked a group of GM scientists and lobbyists what we should do about GM food and crops. Since many of the scientists involved make money from GM, it’s no surprise they want more of it. But this situation begs the question: shouldn’t those advising the Government on GM be a bit more independent, or at least a little more distant from the profits?

“The report  aims for a shift to U.S.-style regulation based on “substantial equivalence,” rather than the EU’s clear case-by-case precautionary evaluation of each GMO in turn. This attempt to portray GMOs as “just the same” also undermines the very labels that help EU consumers find, and roundly reject, GM products on supermarket shelves.

“The biggest problem with the report is that it misses the point—if industrial food production was going to end hunger, it would have done so by now. We need a much smarter approach to feeding ourselves, with more respect for what farmers do, a sentiment that was reflected in a report called Wake Up Before It’s Too Late, which the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development issued last year.

Continue reading “UK GM Report: Vested Interests Miss the Point”

UK Government Pressed on Pro-GM Position

Categories

Food

Brussels – Food & Water Europe today asked the UK Government to change its vocal but ill-founded pro-GM position in light of the evidence that GM and non-GM farming are incompatible. 

EU Food Policy Analyst Eve Mitchell said, “The UK Government keeps saying it will base its GM policy on evidence and that it will listen to public views, so we’re asking how it is addressing the evidence that doesn’t suit its pro-GM agenda.”

Food & Water Europe is particularly keen to hear how UK Government support for GM cultivation protects the rights of farmers and consumers who want to avoid GMOs. A new survey of farmers conducted by Washington DC-based Food & Water Watch and the Organic Farmers’ Agency for Relationship Marketing across 17 U.S. states reveals that since GM cultivation was introduced in 1996, GM contamination has unfairly burdened organic and non-GMO farmers with extra work, longer hours and financial insecurity, while those growing GM crops are not required to mitigate the risk of contamination. Survey results show GM and non-GM coexistence is a practical impossibility in the small fields of the EU and UK. Even in the huge agricultural holdings farmed in the U.S.:

  • 52 percent of survey respondents have had shipments rejected due to GM contamination at a median cost of US$4,500 due to this load rejection — one farmer reported a US$367,000 loss in one year. Five out of six responding farmers are concerned about GMO contamination impacting their farm, with 60 percent saying they are extremely concerned.
  • Over two-thirds of respondents do not think good stewardship alone is enough to protect organic and non-GMO farmers from contamination.
  • Nearly half of respondents are skeptical that GM and non-GM crop production can coexist.

In addition, Food & Water Europe asked the UK Government to explain how it will develop the necessary coexistence legislation needed to introduce GM crops to England when the Scottish and Welsh Governments remain steadfastly opposed to GM cultivation and the Scots even oppose coexistence regulation because they find it incompatible with their moratorium on all GM crops. These are serious policy problems given the clear risk that English GM farming will contaminate Welsh and Scottish farms across national borders. 

Given the incompatibility of GM and non-GM farming, the organisation is asking the UK Government if it will now support full liability being placed firmly on GM patent holders for all economic and environmental damage caused by their products, including biotech companies paying into a compensation fund and new measures to ensure that those wishing to bring GM products to market bear the costs of the necessary segregation, rather than the other way around as is now the case.

Mitchell added, “UK Government support for GM crops is ill-founded, the practicalities have not been thought through, and the underlying problems are not going to go away. While the UK Government continues to act as a cheerleader for GM crops, we can’t see how it will be able to protect farmers and consumers who want to exercise their right to avoid GMOs or how it will ensure it isn’t non-GM farmers who pay the price for the inevitable contamination GM crops will cause. We’re appealing to the UK Government to do the right thing, listen to the lessons learned elsewhere and withdraw from its misplaced support for GM crops before it is too late.” 

Contact:
Eve Mitchell, EU Food Policy Advisor +44 (0)1381 610 740 [email protected] 

c/o Rose Cottage

Farness

Poyntzfield

Dingwall

The Black Isle   IV7 8LY 

tel + 44 (0)1381 610 740 

First Successful European Citizen’s Initiative on Right2Water presents demands to EU Institutions

Categories

Water

Brussels — The first ever successful European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) met with Maros Sefcovic and the European Commission services today to discuss the application of the ECI within European legislation. This is the first time the European Commission met and discussed with citizens to initiate European legislation.

After having received over 1.68 million valid statements (http://www.right2water.eu) the representatives of the citizens committee are demanding that the European Commission recognise and implement the right to water for all into EU legislation as a way of ensuring all Member States do the same.

“The message of our ECI is simple. Implement the human right to water, do not liberalise water services in the EU and do more to ensure people across the world have access to clean and safe water,” says Jan Willem Goudriaan, Vice President of the ECI Right2Water.

Also today, the President of the Environment Committee (ENVI) Matthias Groote chaired a public hearing with representatives of the Petitions Committee, the Internal Market Committee and the Development Committee. Over 30 Members of the European Parliament were able to ask questions.

The European Water Movement has been a pillar of this ECI. People supporting the ECI Right2Water have a clear message: “We do not want the liberalisation of water services in the EU. Human rights come before market interests,” says Gabriella Zanzanaini, Director of European Affairs for Food & Water Europe.

 

For more information contact:

Gabriella Zanzanaini, (+32) 488 409 662, gzanzanaini(at)fweurope.org

Food & Water Europe is a member of the European Water Movement