Say no to genetic engineering

A Bangladeshi farmer using organic methods plants young rice into soil that has been recently flooded.

While scientific progress on molecular biology has a great potential to increase our understanding of nature and provide new medical tools, it should not be used as justification to turn the environment into a giant genetic experiment by commercial interests. The biodiversity and environmental integrity of the world's food supply is too important to our survival to be put at risk.

Genetic engineering enables scientists to create plants, animals and micro-organisms by manipulating genes in a way that does not occur naturally.

These genetically modified organisms (GMO) can spread through nature and interbreed with natural organisms, thereby contaminating non 'GE' environments and future generations in an unforeseeable and uncontrollable way.

Their release is 'genetic pollution' and is a major threat because GMOs cannot be recalled once released into the environment.

Because of commercial interests, the public is being denied the right to know about GE ingredients in the food chain, and therefore losing the right to avoid them despite the presence of labelling laws in certain countries.

Biological diversity must be protected and respected as the global heritage of humankind, and one of our world's fundamental keys to survival. Governments are attempting to address the threat of GE with international regulations such as the Biosafety Protocol.

We believe:

GMOs should not be released into the environment as there is not adequate scientific understanding of their impact on the environment and human health.

We advocate immediate interim measures such as labelling of GE ingredients, and the segregation of genetically engineered crops and seeds from conventional ones.

We also oppose all patents on plants, animals and humans, as well as patents on their genes. Life is not an industrial commodity. When we force life forms and our world's food supply to conform to human economic models rather than their natural ones, we do so at our own peril.

Find out more:

- Go to the Food section to find out about: labelling legislation for GE products in your country, how GE crops are used in animal feed and the corporate giants who are trying to control what you eat.

- Go to the Feeding the world - facts versus fiction section: to find out the truth about world hunger and why GE crops will not help.

- Go to the GE agriculture and genetic pollution section to find out about: the dangers of GE agriculture, which crops are currently being developed, genetic pollution and the dangers of patenting life.

- Go to the Biosafety Protocol section to find out about this important legislation that regulates the transboundary movements of GE and who is for and against it.

- Go to the Failings of GE section to find out about how the biotech industry is basing its products on crude and old-fashioned science.

Related Reports

Media briefing – GMO debate

24 November 2008

A media briefing on the GMO debate linked to the Ad hoc working group on the 24th of November and the Environment Council on the 4th of December 2008.

This briefing covers why the debate is important, the likely outcomes of the meetings and Greenpeace's demands.

Download Document (232 Kb)

G8 and the Food Crisis – The Real Solutions

01 July 2008

Millions of people around the world are suffering food shortages, unaffordable food prices and hunger, primarily due to industrial farming, bad harvests related to climate change, unjust terms of trade and the rush for biofuels. There is no single solution to the crisis. The G8 leaders at the Toyako, Japan summit from 7-9 July, need to step up emergency assistance to the 850 million people who are suffering from hunger, and address the underlying causes of the current food crisis. This briefing outlines the real solutions.

Download Document (234 Kb)

Food Security and Climate Change: The Answer is Biodiversity

01 July 2008

Climate change will profoundly affect agriculture worldwide. Food security in many countries is under threat from unpredictable changes in rainfall and more frequent extreme weather. Farmers in poorer countries with harsh climate conditions will likely be most affected. A review of recent scientific literature underlines that the most effective strategy to adapt agriculture to climate change is to increase biodiversity. This report outlines the role biodiversity can play as a solution to climate change and decreasing food security.

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GE Trees Briefing

29 May 2008

Genetically engineered trees pose specific environmental risks that are even higher than those of annual crops such as maize or soy. Trees are long lived, wild and undomesticated species that are part of natural food webs and ecosystems, and hence pose long-term environmental threats to biodiversity-rich ecosystems that are difficult, if not impossible, to foresee and assess. This briefing paper outlines these threats.

Download Document (59 Kb)

Position paper on Liability and Redress

01 May 2008

Overview of the current text under negotiation on liability and redress under the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. Prepared for the Fourth Meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, Bonn, Germany, 12-16 May, 2008.

Download Document (219 Kb)