Περιβάλλον

Mr. José Manuel Barroso
President of the European Commission
1049 Brussels,
Belgium
http://ec.europa.eu/commission_barroso/president/contact/mail/index_en.htm

Mr. Hans-Gert Pöttering
President of the European Parliament
European Parliament
GOL03A012
L-2929 LUXEMBOURG
https://www.secure.europarl.europa.eu/parliament/public/citizensMail/secured/cmRequest.do?cmLanguage=en

Mr. Gordon Brown
The Prime Minister,
10 Downing Street,
London SW1 2AA
UK
http://www.number10.gov.uk/footer/contact-us

Recent reports made in The Independent (27.10.2008) have given us grave concern with regard to plans to advance Genetic Modified crops and cultivation. Although the precise claims made in this report must be substantiated, it is a fact that until now the European Union has shown favour by various means to Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO). A typical example is the inadequate labeling of GMO products which is neither properly observed nor enforced.

Today we are living a multifaceted ecological and economic crisis. This situation is directly correlated to man’s weakness in learning from past mistakes. We should take extreme care in making decisions which will determine the fortune of the planet and of generations to come. Both climate change and the current economic crisis are sorry examples of this contemptuous stance.

By Geoffrey Lean

Αναδημοσίευση από την Independent

Gordon Brown and other European leaders are secretly preparing an unprecedented campaign to spread GM crops and foods in Britain and throughout the continent, confidential documents obtained by The Independent on Sunday reveal.

The documents – minutes of a series of private meetings of representatives of 27 governments – disclose plans to "speed up" the introduction of the modified crops and foods and to "deal with" public resistance to them.

And they show that the leaders want "agricultural representatives" and "industry" – presumably including giant biotech firms such as Monsanto – to be more vocal to counteract the "vested interests" of environmentalists.

News of the secret plans is bound to create a storm of protest at a time when popular concern about GM technology is increasing, even in countries that have so far accepted it.

Public opposition has prevented any modified crops from being grown in Britain. France, one of only three countries in Europe to have grown them in any amounts, has suspended their cultivation, and resistance to them is rising rapidly in the other two, Spain and Portugal.

The embattled biotech industry has been conducting a public relations campaign based round the highly contested assertion that genetic modification is needed to feed the world. It has had some success in the Government, where ministers have been increasingly speaking out in favour of the technology, and in the European Commission, with which its lobbyists have boasted of having "excellent working relations".

The same text is in Greek, English, German, French, and Italian

Αγαπητοί φίλοι
Ο σκοπός του γράμματος που φιλοξενείται στο οικολογικό φόρουμ είναι να δείξει ότι οι πολίτες της Ε.Ε. διαφωνούν με την πολιτική της που ευνοεί, με διάφορους τρόπους, την διάδοση των μεταλλαγμένων στη γεωργία (δες άρθρο Independent 27-10-2008 (δυστυχώς στα Αγγλικά)). Εάν συμφωνείτε με την ουσία του γράμματος που ακολουθεί, μπορείτε να το στείλετε ηλεκτρονικά ή ταχυδρομικά στους αποδέκτες που αναφέρει. Επίσης μπορείτε και σεις να διαμορφώσετε το περιεχόμενο του, να προσθέσετε αποδέκτες, όπως και να το στείλετε και σε άλλους φίλους σας ακόμα και στο εξωτερικό (γι’ αυτό υπάρχει και σε άλλες γλώσσες).Υπάρχει επίσης και άλλο πληροφοριακό υλικό. Σημειώνεται ότι ο χώρος μηνυμάτων του Προέδρου του Ε.Κ. δέχεται μέχρι 2.000 χαρακτήρες με τα κενά.
Το γράμμα

Dear friends,
The purpose of the following letter is to demonstrate that the citizens of the EU disagree with its policy advocating by various means the introduction of Genetically Modified Organisms in Agriculture (see Independent article 27-10-2008). If you agree with the substance of this letter, you could email or post it to the following recipients. You might also adapt the letter in order to send it to friends home or abroad. Please, encourage your friends abroad to translate the letter in their own language. Only please change the address of the Prime Minister.
The letter

Liebe Freunde,