EU agriculture chief slams GMOs, expresses strong support for natural agriculture

Tuesday, May 17, 2011 by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer
Tags: GMOs, agriculture, health news

(NaturalNews) In a bold move that goes against the mainstream flow, European Union (EU) Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Ciolos recently denounced genetically-modified (GM) food crops, citing the fact that they fail to meet various "quality and diversity criteria" that consumers have come to expect, and their inherent lack of benefit for both farmers and consumers. Ciolos also expressed support for individual EU member nations having the freedom to ban GM crops if they so choose, emphasizing the notion that natural, local agriculture is the best route for European nations to take.

Acceptance of GMOs throughout Europe continues to be far lower than it is in the US, partly due to the fact that EU policy dictates that GMOs be properly labeled, while US policy has no labeling requirements. But European consumers have also been far more vocal against the use of GMOs than consumers in the US have been, and numerous other European leaders like Ciolos have publicly spoken out against GMOs, while most US politicians have remained silent on the issue (https://www.naturalnews.com/030422_GMOs_Europ...).

In a recent interview, Ciolos properly identified traditional polyculture agriculture as beneficial to high food quality, diverse diets, and natural biodiversity. Sharply contrasted to GM crop cultivation, which represents a chemical-based system of monoculture, traditional agriculture represents a wide variety of unique food items that are not chemical dependent, and that do not put the environment and human health at risk (https://www.naturalnews.com/GMO.html).

Ciolos also stated that the US has been thrusting GMOs on the EU for quite some time now, which was also confirmed through a Wikileaks cable that was released late last year. In it, former US Ambassador to France Craig Roberts Stapleton was exposed for threatening the EU with retaliation if it did not accept the same open policy towards GMOs that the US currently holds (https://www.naturalnews.com/030810_GMOs_Europ...).

Sources for this story include:

http://www.euractiv.com/en/cap/eu-farm-chief...