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10.500 protestmails against RTRS, protests in front of and inside Pro GM Conference
Minister Verburg of Agriculture today received 10.500 protestmails against Dutch support for the Round Table on Responsible Soy. Nina Holland en Tjerk Dalhuisen of toxisoy.org emphasized that the RTRS doesn’t solve any problem and provides a green label for a very bad product. The Minister also received a DVD with videoletters from smalle farmers in Paraguay. Mrs Verburg reacted that a lot of improvement has to be made in the Soy Sector, but she still believes the RTRS can help to do so.
All senders of the protestmail have received an answer explaining this viewpoint. The Dutch Government still doesn’t want to understand that production of soy for export, with massive pesticide use and at the cost of small farmers and nature, can never be sustainable or responsible.
The signatures were handed over in front of the Kurhaus Hotel in Scheveningen, where the Minister attended a Europees Conference organised by the Duthc Ministry of Agriculture about the socio-economical impacts of GM crops. The aim of the Ministry was to speed up and simplify acceptance of GMO cultivation in Europe. At the start of the conference activists from Aseed organised a clownsact at the entrance, to protest against the biased program. See www.aseed.net for pictures.
Those attending the congres could listen to predominantly pro GM talks and were given only brief opportunities to answer questions. Toxicsoy.org put op a big poster with the effects of GM Roundup Ready Soy:
In the meantime elsewhere in the buiding a European Ministerial was held to raise support for a Dutch proposal to speed up European procedures. See the conclusions here:
main_findings_ministerial_roundtable_gmo_091126.pdf
NGO’s present at the conference Greenpeace International, Friends of the Earth Europe, CEO en X-Y Solidarity Fund issued a joint statement to protest against the biased organisation of the conference and the refusal of critical speakers on the soy issue.
26 nov 2009