Europe needs and can achieve sustainable agriculture GMO-free – Christine von Weizsäcker Fourth International Soya Sy

1. Europe • needs and can achieve • sustainable agriculture • GMO-free – • Christine von Weizsäcker • Fourth International Soya Symposium • Vienna • 5 – 6 September, 2012

2. Decisions on Agricultural Practices, Land Use and Seeds are inherently linked to struggles for power and political influence, land and money. Recent reports about land-grabbing, and food speculation and the conflict between food security and biofuels illustrate such links. This is, however, not totally new: Already the Pharaos in old Egypt knew that you need a strong army andcorn stores to gain hegemonial power. Food sovereignty is at the basis of political sovereignty. Soy-beans and genetically modified organisms are both crucial elements in existing severe conflicts of interests. and play a role in the choices between dependence or sovereign and sustainable solutions in food and agriculture for all.

3. Strategies of Public Perception Management Strategy 1: It is either too early or too late for a broad public political debate In 1995, GMOs were grown in the US commercially. Until then people insisting on a broad public debate were blamed to be premature, emotional, uninformed, backward, enemies of technological progress and stricken by fear psychosis. In 1996, the first ship with GMO soya tried to enter Hamburg harbour and was blocked by Greenpeace activists and a lot of public attention and debate was generated. Monsanto strategy had been to declare after a very short intervall that a public debate was not necessary anymore because GMOs were everywhere and unavoidable.

4. Strategies of Public Perception Management Strategy 2: Confusion and Resignation If reports are confusing and contradicting each other, if different scientists come up with totally different results, if the public has no way to validate the results, if the trust in public research is tainted by public private partnerships, if the public has no ways and means to participate with meaningful actions, people very often react with resignation (Nobody knows for sure. I have no say. Why should I bother?).

5. Strategies of Public Perception Management Strategy 3: Accidental or technically unavoidable contamination The operator in charge is not easy to identify in contamination scandals involving the global market. Companies who are unprofessional and not able to keep unapproved varieties out of the distribution chains are rarely heavily fined (except for Liberty Link) and are not black-listed. The costs of segregation have to be carried by those who choose to stay GMO-free. There is a constant pressure to legalize ever higher contamination levels. If contamination seems unavoidable, resignation becomes unavoidable, see Strategies 1 and 2.

6. People with active Hope, resistant to resignation, insist on the application of the Precautionary Principle, and their Right to Know and Choose and participate in solutions that break the GMO-monopoly. The Precautionary Principle If scientific knowledge is incomplete and when there are indications of severe or irreversible harm to the environment and/or human health governments should apply precaution and take measures to prevent such potential harm. The Right to Know Labelling is at the core of citizens‘ sovereignty in their choice of goods and services. It is a precondition for moving towards sustainable production and consumption patterns.

7. BRAZILIAN COURT ORDERS FOOD COMPANIES TO LABEL GM FOODFood World News, USA, 27.8.2012URL:     http://www.foodworldnews.com/articles/2017/20120827/brazil-court-rule-food-nestle-gm-monsanto.htmAUTHOR:  Sharon RobinsonSUMMARY: "While the battle against Genetically Modified food labeling rages on in the U.S. a definitive stand has been taken by Brazil. A court in Brazil has ruled that Nestle label all of its products with over 1 percent GMO. This ruling came about after Nestle's strawberry flavoured Bono Cookies were found to have transgenic material. In concordance with Brazilian law, all food manufacturers will now have to let the consumers know about the food products containing GM organism, reports GM Watch. The cookies were found to contain genetically modified soy. All food products containing GM content will now have to have a label: a yellow triangle with 'T' in the middle. This will be accompanied by the word transgenic to indicate that the food is genetically modified." Even Brazil, one of the main exporters of genetically modified/transgenic soy beans, insists on labelling. However, the World Trade Organization has the tendency to treat labelling and the precautionary principle as non-tariff trade barriers and threatens countries with fines.

8. Towards Sustainable Solutions • Invite Participation and cooperation of many partners • Respect and protect the environment • Use Economic tools effectively and with discretion • The social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainable development call for an integrated, coherent and cohesive approach, including • Economic feasibility including market stability, and short and reliable distribution channels • local livelihoods and jobs in villages and small towns, • Integration of local knowledge and know-how, respect for farmers • Environmental protection, especially agricultural biodiversity and • its soil ecosystems • Good and healthy food, well cooked and eaten in pleasant • company, enjoying both the taste and the history of the meal.

9. All countries are Parties to this Convention, except for the US and the Vatican Two major soy-bean exporters, i.e. US and Argentina are not Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety The Supplementary Protocol on Liability and Redress and the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-Sharing are in the process of ratification and coming into force. Convention on Biological Diversity Conservation, sustainable use and equitable sharing of benefits of biological diversity Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety Precautionary Approach, right of importing country to know, assess and decide on GMO imports Nagoya-Kuala Lumpur Supplementary Protocol on Liability and Redress The polluter has to pay for damage by GMOs Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-sharing Rules against biopiracy and for fair sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources Website of the Convention www.cbd.int

10. Simple cutting and pasting Versus Assessing The risks of Complex contextualizations Genetic engineering is relatively easy, separating and manipulating single genes, cutting them out of the context of their genomes, species, ecosystems, and socio-economic contexts And pasting them somewhere else Risk assessment of GMOs is the more difficult and far bigger task, understanding the reintroduction of single isolated genes into new and complex genome interactions and contexts new species new ecosystems new socio-economic conditions. It never is just about seeds. It is always a technological, environmental and socio-economic package Why not spend all that intelligence and money on directly creatingcontextualized sustainable and GMO-free solutions?

11. The town of Ituzaing poisoned by Monsantos Technological Package of RR-ready soybeans And round-up spraying http://www.ejolt.org/2012/08/life-in-the-deathly-mists-of-the-soy-industry-in-argentina/

12. Biopirates? Biopirates steal genetic resources - They do not ask for Prior Informed Consent nor sign mutually agreed terms. Biopirates monopolize benefits – They do not share benefits. Picture taken by the author at the „Captain Hook Award Ceremony“, at COP8 of CBD in Curitiba, Brazil., 2006 Danube Soya must avoid biopiracy

13. Brazil fines 35 firms US$44 million for biopiracyRodrigo de Oliveira Andrade20 July 2012[SO PAULO] A Brazilian government agency responsible for natural resources has fined 35 companies for not sharing benefits from exploitation of the country's biodiversity.The decision follows official complaints filed by the Genetic Heritage Department of the Brazilian Ministry of Environment to the agency in charge, the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama).Ibama announced earlier this month (6 July) that 35 different companies were responsible of 220 violations of the national law on biodiversity, totaling 88 million Brazilian reals (around US$44 millions) in fines. <http://www.scidev.net/en/agriculture-and-environment/bioprospecting/news/brazil-fines-35-firms-us-44-million-for-biopiracy.html> The use of the rich diversity of genetic resources necessary for successful breeding of locally adapted, low input varieties requires fairness and diligence in the relationship to the countries of origin of these resources.

15. Leguminous plants offer • a rich variety of ecosystem services • for farmers and society • Increased resource efficiency, positive carbon balance • Positive effects of pre-crop and crop • Rotation, nitrogen fixation, pest control, • Mitigation of climate change, reduction of green house gas emissions, such as nitrous oxide • Adaptation to climate change, increasing water retention capacity of soils • Conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity in agricultural landscapes with rich soils and thriving pollinators • Healthy and sustainable human nutrition Peter Wehling, Brigitte Ruge-Wehling, Eicke Rudloff, Gisela Jansen, Christiane Balko: Auf dem Weg zu einer nachhaltigen Tierernährung. ForschungsReport Ernährung-Landwirtschaft-Verbraucherschutz 1/2012 (Heft 45), Federal Ministry for Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection, Berlin, p. 13