Genetically engineered organisms out of control in Romania

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TITLE: Genetically engineered organisms out of control in Romania Ex-Monsanto director speaks outSOURCE: Greenpeace European Unit, BelgiumDATE: 10 Oct 2005Bucharest, 10 October 2005 - Massive illegal cultivation of geneticallyengineered (GE) crops threatens farmers and the economy in Romania. At aGreenpeace press conference today in Bucharest, Monsanto's former generalmanager in Romania warned that Romanian authorities have totally lostcontrol over genetically modified organisms in the country.During a research tour in Romania, Greenpeace discovered illegal growingof GE soya in ten counties of the country's total 42. Greenpeacepresented findings (1) that prove that Romanian authorities have lostcontrol over the situation. Romania, a future member of the EU, is theonly country in Europe where planting of the controversial Roundup Ready(RR) soya is allowed. The country has the largest GE-cultivated landscapein Europe; officially half the 140,000 hectares of soya planted in 2005is registered to be GE. However, according to representatives of farmers'associations and even biotech giant Monsanto's former Romanian manager,up to 90% of soya is GE. The core of the problem is due to geneticallyengineered crops contaminating the traditional cultures, as well as theillegal selling of GE soya seeds.Gabriel Paun, Greenpeace Central-Eastern European (CEE) campaigner inRomania said: "In the past few months we have found GE potatoes, GE plumsand now it turns out that even the commercial planting of GE soya happensillegally. What's next? The Romanian government must act immediately andtake back control of the situation."Mr. Dragos Dima, former Monsanto general manager in Romania agrees withthe fears. Speaking at the press conference, he said: "Such a hugesurface of uncertified GM soya is not tolerable due to lack of monitoringand control systems. I left the company because I expressed my concernsregarding the introduction of GM technology in Romania. I believed thatneither Romania nor the company were ready and able to monitor andcontrol the GM technology. Unfortunately, the management has not listenedto my concerns and the situation today shows a total lack of control overthe GM technology." Mr. Dima left Monsanto in December 1998, while GE soywas introduced in Romania in 1999."Monsanto knowingly pushed Romania in a technology that had to lead to asituation out of control. Romanian farmers and food companies now have tosuffer the economic consequences," added Paun.Since their introduction in 1996, GE crops have contaminated food, feed,seed and the environment right across the globe. Worldwide over 100incidents of illegal or unlabelled GE contamination have been documentedin 27 countries on 5 continents - and those represent only the recordedincidents. For more information visitwww.gmocontaminationregister.orgGreenpeace is an independent campaigning organisation, which uses non-violent, creative confrontation to expose global environmental problems,and to force the solutions that are essential to a green and peaceful future.Further informationGabriel Paun, Greenpeace CEE campaigner in Romania, phone: +40 744 351977Anamaria Bogdan, Greenpeace CEE Media in Romania, phone: +40 0721 632396Susanne Fromwald, Greenpeace CEE scientist in Austria, phone: +43 664 6126706Notes to editors(1) The report "A Documentation of Contamination and Illegal GM Soyacultivation in Romania" in Romanian language is based on findings ofGreenpeace in August 2005. Analytical results mentioned in the reportwere done by the Umweltbundesamt, an independent, EU-certified laboratoryfor polymerase chain reactions, PCRs, in Vienna, Austria. PCR analysis isa genetic test for plants or food to see whether genetic modificationsare present in a specific sample.(2) If they want to plant Roundup Ready soya, farmers only need toregister with the authorities. It only is considered illegal as if theydon't register.