[Gen-Streitfall] Dringende Infos zu GVO-International / Mais-Aktion der Zukunftsstiftung Landwirtschaft / Wie stehen die Planungen zu den GVO-Protesttagen

[Wolfgang Wiebecke]

Hallo zusammen,

in den vergangenen Tagen habe ich einige wesentliche Informationen zu
Gentechnik und Protest dagegen bekommen, die ich hiermit weiterleite:

Dom of Chevreuse aus Frankreich alter.campagne at laposte.net schrieb heute
mit dem Betreff "GMO dates:  Feb. 1;  April 5, 8", dass die Entscheidung
der WTO zum Genstreitfall gegen die EU kurz bevorsteht und sandte einen
Aktionsbrief aus den USA sowie die Einladung zur Gentechdemo in Wien am
5. 4. mit: (An dieser Stelle überrascht es mich, dass der Bundesdeutsche
3. 3. nicht erwähnt wird!)

Dear All,

   In case you wouldn't already know about what follows, could
you please forward asap these three important pieces of
information through your european activists networks? I
notably thought of the "GMO-free Regions Conference"
participants mailing list (Benny, Harmut). Thank you!

Best regards,
Dom of Chevreuse
------------
1/ As you know, there will be a EU-conference in Vienna from
April 4th to 6th on co-existence and Austrian NGOs and the
Green farmers association are organising a no-to-gmo event
(see 1st attachment). The conference will not only be a
national event but a European conference and we want to
demonstrate that not only Austrian people are opposed to gmo
but also others are fighting for gmo-free-regions. Therefore
we would like to have anti-gmo-activists and farmers from
other countries to come to Austria and join us. I would be
very grateful if you could circulate this call throughout your
network. I hope that we can mobilize a lot of people from all
over Europe to join our event and make a forceful contribution
to a GMO-opposition week.
(Astrid of Vienna)

2/ Through leaking news, we may be informed THIS week of the
WTO decision concerning the USA-EU dispute on GMO trading. A
statement of joint organizations of your respective countries
could be prepared for a quick reaction to this. A joint
european Press Release would be even more efficient, although
difficult to set up in such a short amount of time.
  As an example of what could be done asap, the attached DRAFT
will be finalized into a Press Release to be issued by several
joint US organizations, as soon as the WTO decision is known
(shortly after the 1st of February).
(Dom)

3/ A Press Release announcing the Joint International
GMOpposition Day (JIGMOD) will be issued beginning of February,
presented as an international response to the WTO decision,
following the possible related national statements (see 2/).
It will contain every anti-GMO event until the 8th of April
(i.e.: the 5th of April March, 1/), together with the list of
partners (countries and organizations) registered at that
time. Before being published, it will be reviewed by
international partners.
  More on: http://altercampagne.free.fr/
(Dom)

- - - - -

Hier nun die Texte der Anhänge:

March for GMO-free regions
5th April 2006
NGO-March towards the EU-Conference "The Freedom of Choice",
4-6.April in Vienna
23rd January 2005
Background:
During the Austrian EU-Presidency in the fist six month of 2006 crucial
decision for setting the course in the field of genetic engineering
(co-existence within the EU, WTO-judgement) will be taken. The
EU-conference on "genetically modified, conventional and organic crops",
ironically called "The Freedom of Choice" will take place in Vienna from
the 4th to the 6th of April 2006. It is envisaged as a conference of
experts and politicians aiming at building the frame for coexistence.
Reports of the EC-Commission as well as the different member states will
be presented at this occasion. As there is a limited number of
participants, only very few selected NGOs have been accredited.
The NGO-understanding of "Freedom of choice" is different to that of the
EU-Commission: Coexistence of GMO and GMO-free agriculture does not work
on a small scale level, neither biologically nor economically.
There is widespread public concern, that conventional and organically
grown crops are successively contaminated by GMO. Therefore the NGOs
demand a legal framework, that enables local or regional authorities to
declare their territories as GMO-free regions.
The "March of GMO-free Regions" is planned as a big action, supported by
many NGOs and individuals, to visualize the European-wide resistance
against GMO. It is aimed to be a European-wide signal, by offering
tangible and easy-to-understand-symbols to the international media as
well as through the involvement of active NGOs from the whole Europe.
NGOs, politicians, farmers and citizens of the different European
countries will march towards the conference, under the banners and signs
with the name of their region, country, city or village. They will carry
local agricultural products, sometimes their local traditional clothing,
symbols against genetic engineering and of our campaign against GMO.
The action is organised by a broad network of environmental NGOs,
farmers associations and other organisations in Austria together with
international NGOs and regional movements against GMO. As we want to
symbolize the European regions, we very much rely on NGOs and
individuals from all over Europe to take part in this action, whose
success could be crucial for the future of GMO-free agriculture in Europe.
The NGO´s objectives:
Our central demand is our interpretation of the "Freedom of Choice":
The Right to declare regions as GMO-free
We support the Petition "GMO-free regions and local areas" addressed to
the EC-commission, which is already agreed upon, translated in many
languages and supported by many provinces, local communities and
individual. See: www.gmofree-europe.org
We will present the "Vienna Declaration" to the Conference, a brief
document with our position towards coexistence and our understanding of
GMO-free-region.:
The ,,March for GMO free Regions"
The day of the "March for GMO-free regions" is the 5th of April, as this
is the day, when the EU-conference will be opened by Commissioner
Fischer-Boel, Austrian minister Josef Pröll among others.
The participants will arrive from the different regions of Europe and
meet at 8 o´clock at "Praterstern" in Vienna, a place close to the
conference venue, easy to be reached by metro, local trains or buses.
 From Praterstern we will march towards the Congress centre, a colourful
march of people from Regions in Europe that declare themselves as
GMO-free. They will carry signs with the name of their region (country,
city, village), local agricultural symbols and maybe local traditional
clothing, typical peasant products or symbols of campaign against GMO
(eg banners). The march will be accompanied by tractors and
agricultural machines.
At the conference venue there will be will be a stage for speeches from
representatives of GMO-free Regions and from organisations fighting GMO.
Multilingual moderation and translation will be organised. A cultural
program with cabaret and music will warm our hearts, while organic
farmers will supply us with GMO-free food. We will address the delegates
to the conference and the European media, that will cover the
conference. There will be a media briefing the day before and we will
also comment on the results.
Travel arrangements:
Travel arrangements will have to be organised individually by the
delegations from the regions and organisations. The organisation in
Vienna will provide you with information on cheap accommodations
facilities, on how to get to the site and with a set of useful contacts.
Support and organisation:
The Conference is organised by a platform of NGOs, already including
Greenpeace, FoE, Attac, Global2000, farmers associations, Greens and
many regional organisations opposing GMO. The platform is supposed to
grow quickly and we are approaching the Austrian provinces, that have
declared themselves as GMO-free. We are looking for support by the
growing number of entrepreneurs offering GMO-free food.
Our organisation office is supposed to start its work soon At the moment
we are contacting the regions for participation in the march and have
already had contacts to NGOs in Germany, Hungary, Italy, France, Poland,
and others.
What we need from NGOs, regions, individuals all across Europe:
·Please let us know, if and how many people from your region you are
expecting to come?
·How you are going to travel?
·Who is the contact person in your organisation/ country/ region?
·Do you propose a cultural contribution and/ or a speech to the program?
Contact: Michael Johann, Green farmers association Austria
mobile: ++43/ 664/ 2668548,
email: michael.johann at aon.at

- - - - -
und

Gene Altered Foods Will Remain a Losing Proposition for U.S. Farmers,
Despite WTO Decision
A Joint Statement on the Forthcoming WTO Decision in the U.S.--E.U. Gene
Food Dispute
Early in 2006, the World Trade Organization (WTO) is expected to rule on
a Bush Administration challenge to European delays in approving new
varieties of genetically engineered (GE) foods and on EU member state
bans on certain GE varieties. In anticipation of this ruling, the
undersigned U.S. organizations condemn the Bush Administration's
aggressive tactics in attempting to force-feed unwanted gene altered
varieties to consumers around the world.
The Bush Administration claims that European Union delays in granting
new GE crop approvals has resulted in lost markets for American farmers.
But clearly consumers' preference for non-GE food, and not regulatory
issues, are the true engine of the market collapse for American crops.
Even before new GE approvals began to slow in the late 1990's, the
advent of GE corn resulted in a drop of U.S. corn sales to Europe of
more than 50%.
Consumers in Europe or elsewhere cannot be forced to buy and eat food
that they do not want.
Since the United States has no real hope of boosting sales of GE foods
to unwilling Europeans, the WTO suit is clearly an effort to chill other
nations from pursuing any regulations on GE foods. But increasing
scientific study is showing the necessity of rules to guard against the
public health and environmental hazards associated with these
inadequately tested foods.
We support global regulations of GE foods, mandatory labeling, and the
right to restrict where GE crops are grown. We support right of nations
to regulate GE foods for the welfare of the public and the environment.
We note that even in the United States, many counties and states have
enacted or are developing regulations of these products in the absence
of leadership from the federal government.
Regardless of the outcome of the WTO case, consumers in Europe and in
much of the world will continue to prefer non-GE food. Indeed a WTO
ruling in favor of the United States is sure to generate even more
hostility against GE foods. Ultimately American farmers will suffer the
most as the Bush Administration's arrogant stance on GE food
increasingly alienates our food trading partners. South Korea was once
the number two buyer of U.S. corn but now buys non-GE corn elsewhere,
and China looks to Brazil for non-GE soy.
While Europe and much of the rest of the world, including Australia,
Japan, Korea, China and several other countries have mandatory safety
assessment rules for approval of GE food, and mandatory labeling to
insure consumer choice, in the U.S. deregulated GE foods are sold without
labels to unwitting Americans. The Bush Administration should stop
threatening free choice and food safety through contentious
international trade disputes, and instead start working to provide
Americans with the same protections for safe food choices that European
and other governments around the world have established.
In a similar WTO case, the U.S. prevailed against Europe's ban on
hormone-treated U.S. beef.
Yet while the U.S. "won" the beef-hormone dispute in 1999, Europe has
still not opened its markets to U.S. beef. The beef hormone and GE food
cases show that in a global market, the U.S. will have more success
selling its agricultural products by focusing on providing food that
global consumers want to buy, rather than trying to shove whatever
farmers produce down foreign throats regardless of consumer demand.
We regret the course the Administration has taken in pursuing this
global food fight, and suggest that the interests of Monsanto and other
GE crop producers should no longer dictate our policies on food trade or
food production. Instead, policy should be aimed toward providing
Americans and our export customers with the kind of safe, healthy,
sustainably-produced food that they want to eat. Regardless of the
outcome of the decision of the U.S. case at the WTO, the global battle
over GE food will only end when the Administration learns the basic
economic lesson,
"the customer is always right."
Center for Food Safety
Washington, DC
Consumers Policy Institute, Consumers Union
Yonkers, NY
Organic Consumers Association
Little Marais, MN
Oakland Institute
Oakland, CA
Western Organization of Resource Councils
Billings, MT
Institute for Social Ecology
Plainfield, VT
Occidental Arts & Ecology Center
Occidental, CA
Friends of the Earth USA
Washington, DC
Food & Water Watch
Washington, DC
Partnership for the Land and Agricultural Needs of Traditional Peoples
Shepherdstown, WV
Sustainable Living Systems/Western Sustainable Agriculture Working Group
Corvallis, MT

***********************

coordination at genet-info.org

berichtete heute (wie auch andere) von einem Treffen bezüglich
Terminator-Technologie in Granada, Spanien, demzufolge für die
Terminatortechnologie die Weichen noch intensiver gestellt wurden, hier
nur der Beginn des Textes:


RE: Moratorium on Terminator Technology reaffirmed, but with qualifications

The fourth meeting of the Ad Hoc Open-ended Intersessional Working Group
on Article 8(j) and related provisions of the Convention on Biological
Diversity met in Granada, Spain from 23-27 January.

On the final day of the meeting, the Working Group finalized its
recommendation on GURTs (popularly known as Terminator Technologies),
which will be forwarded to the eighth meeting of the Conference of the
Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), to be held in
March 2006.

**************************

Ähnlich lautet es bei GMWatch:

1.UN Meeting Undermines Moratorium on Terminator: Goal to Approve
Terminator is Now Clear
January 28, 2006
http://www.banterminator.org/news_updates/news_updates/un_meeting_undermines_moratorium_on_terminator_goal_to_approve_terminator_is_now_clear

ETC Group
Ban Terminator Campaign
News Release
27 January 2006

http://www.etcgroup.org
http://www.banterminator.org

Granada's Grim Sowers Plow up Moratorium on Terminator,
Clear the Path for its Approval at UN

Terminator Opponents Prepare for Battle
at COP8 in Curitiba, Brazil March 20-31, 2006

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In diesem Sinn will ich nun doch auch - wenn auch verspätet - auf die
schöne, bei der Grünen Woche gestartete Aktion hinweisen, die der DNR
weitergeleitet hat mit dem Link
http://www.telepolis.de/r4/artikel/21/21819/1.html demzufolge die
Möglichkeit besteht, auf eigenem Land (ab 1/2 m²) die freie Maissorte
Bantam zu säen, erhältlich bei der Zukunftsstiftung Landwirtschaft, um
damit Auskunftsrechte bei Behörden bezüglich GVO-Anbau bekommen und auf
Schadensersatz klagen zu können. (Hierauf weist auch der
Informationsdienst Gentechnik hin.)

*********************

LAST NOT LEAST LIEGEN MIR BIS HEUTE NOCH KEINE INFORMATIONEN ZUR PLANUNG
DES 3. 3. UND DES 8. 4. IN DEUTSCHLAND VOR. NUR EIN TELEFONISCHER
HINWEIS HAT MICH ERREICHT, DASS AM 7. 4. EINE KOMPETENTE INITIATIVE
MONSANTO IN DÜSSELDORF BESUCHEN WILL, JEDOCH OHNE NÄHERE INFOS.
(VIELLEICHT SIND MAL WIEDER MAILS VERLOREN GEGANGEN???) ICH BITTE
DRINGEND UM ENTSPRECHENDE HINWEISE UND GGF. INFORMATIONEN, DA DIE
AKTIVEN IN WUPPERTAL (WIE WOHL AUCH IN ZAHLREICHEN ANDEREN STÄDTEN) SICH
BESTENFALLS EINER AKTION ANSCHLIESSEN, JEDOCH AUFGRUND DER KONZENTRATION
AUF ANDERE THEMEN (BOLKESTEINRICHTLINIE ETC.) KEINE EIGENE INITIATIVE
ERGREIFEN KÖNNTEN!

Mit friedlichem Gruß

Wolfgang Wiebecke

Dr. Wolfgang Wiebecke
Agrargruppe von attac-Wtal
Meckelstr. 9
42285 Wuppertal
Tel/FAX: 0202-6480966