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Immediate release - Tuesday 26 August

FAILING IN THE FIELD
GM crops in Spain don't deliver promises, but harm farmers and environment

A new study published today by Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace
demonstrates that the growing of GM crops in Spain is causing contamination of organic crops, producing low yields and its benefits are grossly overstated. The report is also highly critical of the Spanish Government for failing to properly control or monitor the situation. [1]

Spain is the only country in the European Union where GM crops are grown at a commercial scale: since 1998, an estimated  25,000 hectares are planted each year with a genetically modified corn variety (called Bt176) sold by the Swiss biotech company Syngenta. The corn has been engineered to resist the European Corn Borer, a potentially harmful insect for maize.

The cultivation of GM corn in Spain is taking place without any official
evaluation (although prescribed by Spanish law). However, there is now
information - made available through a few independent studies- that shows that the GM plantings pose serious economic and environmental problems:

* A study by IGTA [2] demonstrates that - over the years 1998 to 2000 - in
most cases there were no differences between conventional and GM crops when attacked by the corn borer. This indicates that the corn borer survives the toxin produced by the GM plant, which poses a real risk if resistance develops. This can not only create an economic problem to farmers, but also an environmental problem, since heavier and more environmentally damaging pesticides will be needed to fight the "armed" insects.

* The first cases of organic crops contaminated by GMOs have been
discovered in the northern region of Navarra by the Council of Organic
Farming in Navarra (CPAEN, a public organic certifying body). 

Consequently the organic certificate was withdrawn and farmers suffered losses because their product could not be labelled organic anymore  for marketing
purposes.

* Studies have shown that the yields for the GM crop are substantially
lower then comparable conventional varieties. For example, one study
reported that in 1999 the GM corn yielded 25% less then the top yielding
variety.

* The Spanish Governments own Working Group on Pesticides reported in 2002 that corn borer incidence in Spain is "low" and "does not justify the use of these GM varieties" [3]. In contrast, the biotech industry states that
"Spanish farmers have suffered European Corn Borer for generations". [4]

The report by Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth also explains the
approval process in the USA and the EU as well as the legal issues related to GMOs since 1996. It reveals for example that Bt 176 varieties were already withdrawn in 2001 from the list of approved varieties by the
competent authorities in the US, a country known for its support to GM
crops.

The findings of the report are supported by mainstream Spanish farmers
unions.

Liliane Spendeler from Amigos de la Tierra/Friends of the Earth Spain, one of the authors of the report, said: "This research shows that GM crops are not the miracle crops that they are often taken for. On the contrary: the
only ones benefiting from these crops are the biotech companies, while
farmers and the environment are suffering from negative effects."

Co-author Juan-Felipe Carrasco of Greenpeace Spain said: "Spain has become a big experimental field, where GM crops have been cultivated for the last 5 years without any agronomic advantage compared to conventional varietiesand where no measures have been adopted to prevent their negative impacts. The Spanish example illustrates what could happen on all European farmlands if the EU Commission allows contamination thresholds in conventional seeds and if biotech companies are not held liable for their contamination of
conventional and organic fields."
 

NOTES TO EDITORS

1. The report "The impact of GM corn in Spain" is available from Friends of
the Earth and Greenpeace websites in Spanish and English: www.tierra.org
and www.greenpeace.org/espana_es
2. Instituto Técnico de Gestión Agraria del Gobierno Navarra, the Official
Farm Research Institution in Navarra
3. Spanish Ministry of Agriculture- Report of the Working Group on Pests
and Diseases in Extensive Crops. April 2002.
4. Europabio press release, 27th September 2002.

CONTACTS
Liliane Spendeler, Amigos de la Tierra:
Tel: (+34) 91 847 92 48         Mobile (+34) 666 507 647
Juan Felipe Carrasco, Greenpeace:
Tel: (+34) 91 444 14 46         Mobile (+34) 626 99 82 44

Geert Ritsema, Friends of the Earth Europe  Mobile (+31) 629 005 908
Eric Gall, Greenpeace European Unit,  Mobile (+32) 496 16 15 82