NPG;Experts; It's biologically impossible for GM and GM-free crops to co-exist

From Talk2000.NL

[edit] Consumers International Congress

Bron;Consumers International

Persverklaring;[http://www.consumersinternational.org/Shared_ASP_Files/UploadedFiles/88CB9660-EB04-416C-8123-2935D76A7D61_Mediarelease-Co-existenceofGMandGMfreecropsbiologicallyimpossible.doc

Persverklaring Consumers International]
Publication date: 30 Sep 2005
'Friday, 30 September: Leading experts maintained that it is biologically impossible for GM and GM-free crops to co-exist, at a conference organised by Consumers International and Regione Emilia-Romagna. Ignacio Chapela, Associate Professor at University of California-Berkeley, told Consumers International (CI): ‘“Co-existence” might be a convenient thing to have politically or commercially but biologically it is an impossibility. For most GMOs the problem of contamination arises immediately: within one generation you have escaping genes.’
Ignacio Chapela was one of fourteen experts speaking at a conference '"Co-existence", contamination, and GM-free zones: Jeopardising consumer choice?' in Bologna, Italy on 9 September 2005. Speeches mostly tackled problems with GM contamination and how to legally and technically maintain GM-free agriculture.
Angelika Hilbeck,ETH - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, told the conference: '[trying to prevent GMO contamination] starts with the seeds; you want to make sure you get uncontaminated seeds. This is the origin of everything - from there on the contamination multiplies. For example, in Canada it is hardly possible to get GM-free canola seeds any more. Even the seed stock has been contaminated at this point.'
Benedikt Haerlin, Director of Save our Seeds and Foundation on Future Farming, told CI: '[the term] "co-existence" as used by industry means that those rejecting GMOs have to accept a so-called minimum level of GM contamination.'
David Cuming, GM Campaigns Manager, Consumers International says: Listening to the experts it is apparent that contamination will occur if GM crops are planted alongside GM-free crops. Governments must take urgent measures to stop GMO contamination to ensure that GM-free food remains widely available to all consumers.'
Read speeches, exclusive interviews, and other resources about GMO contamination and GM-free zones.'