GM protest in Warsaw
PR dla Zagranicy
Peter Gentle
16.08.2011 12:10
A demonstration calling for President Komorowski not to sign off on a new law allowing GM seeds to be used in Poland took place in Warsaw over the weekend.
On 31 July 2011 the Senate, the upper house of parliament, voted to pass into law the 'Seeds Act', which legalises the planting of GM seeds in Poland.
The vote went through parliament after MPs and senators from the ruling coalition of Civic Platform (PO) and Polish Peasant Party (PSL) supported the bill.
Participants of the five-hour demonstration on Saturday in Warsaw, however, called for more public debate on the controversial law.
“If we do not protest now then when will we? When our children and grandchildren ask us in ten or twenty years: mom, dad, where were you when GMO food was introduced in Poland?” Klaudia Wojciechowicz from the “GMO Is Not It” initiative told the rally
“Do you really want to answer that you were on vacation/” she added.
Supporters for genetically modified crops argue that studies have shown that there is no risk to traditional crops from GM. They also point to greater yield from GM crops,
A study by the Plant Breeding and Acclimatization Institute in Poland concluded that “important benefits” could be derived by the Polish farming community from using GM seeds. (di/pg)