Monday 4 February 2008

Illegal GM Products Entering Ireland & EU.

Greenpeace & GM-free Ireland demand blockade of all US maize shipments.
Clouds of GM powder contaminate Dublin Docklands.
Fianna Fail’s GM food traceability system in tatters.
Irish farmers plan to phase out GM animal feed.
Photographs available for download Here.
The GM-free Ireland Network and Greenpeace International called today for a blockade of US maize imports following laboratory tests on Friday which prove that a shipment of US animal feed intercepted in Dublin Port and later in Rotterdam entered the EU illegally with a cargo contaminated by unauthorised and toxic varieties of genetically modified (GM) maize.
The certified laboratory analysis showed 2.4% contamination for a GM maize variety called Herculex patented by Pioneer / Dow Agrosciences, which is approved in the USA but illegal in the EU. The tests also showed 20% positive for GM maize MON863 patented by Monsanto; the latter is still approved for animal feed and human food in the EU, even though the European Food Safety Authority has been forced to review its approval following allegations of scientific fraud, cover up, and a recent peer-reviewed study
by French scientists which found it causes serious liver and kidney damage in laboratory animals.
GM-free Ireland and Greenpeace called for the blockade following their discovery of the contaminated animal feed aboard the Pakrac which arrived in Dublin from New Orleans on 2 April. The cargo unloaded here included distiller’s grain probably extracted from a GM maize variety that contains its own pesticide ,
and hulls from GM soya beans thought to contain high level residues of Monsanto’s toxic Roundup weedkiller, which has been found to cause toxicity to human placental cells within hours of exposure, at levels ten times lower than those found in agricultural use. The remainder of the cargo, consisting of GM
maize pellets, was unloaded in Rotterdam.

More Here.

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