Help Keep Poland GMO Free

Polish Countryside

Plea to Help Defeat GMO Advance into Poland

by Guest Blogger, Sir Julian Rose

Poland is likened to being ‘the bread basket of Europe’ due to its large swathes of relatively unspoiled farmland, thousands of small family farms and abundance of richly bio diverse countryside.

When I was asked to become President of The International Coalition to Protect the Countryside, I felt honored to play a part in protecting the future of this unrecognized treasure.

It became almost instantly apparent that the big agribusiness corporations were equally interested in Poland - but for the opposite reasons. At the forefront of those hoping to make a killing in this land were Monsanto and Cargill - two of the most powerful seed/chemical/GMO corporations in the World. In 2004, as Poland became part of the EU - so these players moved in to spread their poisonous trade amongst the traditional farming culture of Poland.

So started a great battle - which has gone on now for eight years and is still not conclusively decided. However, Jadwiga Lopata (ICPPC founder) and I did manage to help every Province in Poland to become a self declared “GMO FREE ZONE” and this led to the then President of Poland putting into affect the first European ban of GM seeds and plants in Europe. He was killed in the Smolenk plane crash (2010) that wiped out a large portion of Poland’s elite leadership.

Now we have a government in power that wishes to open Poland up for GMO planting and we have to fight-on to prevent this reversal of the  great achievements already made.

In England the government is very pro GMO and is helping to fund a GM wheat trial at a government research station near London. We are mobilizing to try and prevent this coming to fruition.

The evidence for a world wide ban of GMO is piling up. Especially since Professor Seralini’s shocking research results that established an indisputable link between rodents suffering tumors, infertility and death and the GM diet they were fed over a three year period. Add to this Sophia Gatika’s remarkable expose of the equally appalling affects of glyphosate poisoning on her community in Argentina and the loss of her own daughter due this mass spraying of GMO soya in the surrounding fields.

Julian Rose

Sir Julian Rose is a British Artistocrat who has turned his family estate into a model of sustainable farming. He led the battle to keep raw milk legal in the United Kingdom, and now is a co-director of a campaign to keep Poland GMO free.

How you can help

Once again we urgently call upon your help to stop the pro GMO ‘Seeds Act’ becoming law in Poland.

We have an extraordinary situation here: the bill that would make GM plants and seeds legal in Poland is currently progressing through the Polish parliament. In spite of a very close call, it has cleared the lower house and is going to the upper house for a reading.
We have no chance of defeating it here - so our last chance rests with the President of Poland who has the power of veto.

This is exactly where we were this time last year! Then, the President rejected the Seeds Act. Now he must do that again if we have any chance of preventing GMO corporate agribusiness establishing themselves on Poland’s beautiful, diverse farmlands and surrounding countryside - not to mention the un-recallable pollution of the food chain and the massive health problems that we now know would follow.

You will be playing a vital part in blocking the disaster which would follow any liberalization of the current law.

SAMPLE LETTER (Customize this and make it your own!)

Pan President Bronislaw Komorowski,
Kancelaria Prezydenta Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej
ul. Wiejska 10
00-902 Warszawa
E-mail: [email protected]

We call upon you to take action to prevent the passage of the bill known as ‘The Seeds Act’ passing into law.

It is our understanding that this Act will open Poland to the commercial planting of GM seeds and plants and to their ‘coexistence’ with non GM plants.

This will destroy the good name of Polish food and farming amongst those who particularly single-out Poland for its high quality produce.
It will also directly conflict with citizens rejection of GMO throughout Europe and the fact that nine European Countries have already banned GM maize MON 810, including France and Germany.

We now also have dramatic evidence that ingesting even small doses of GM feed causes major health problems, including infertility, cancer and death, in rodents tested under laboratory conditions by acclaimed scientists.

Those who knowingly open their Countries to such deadly foods must be held responsible for the outcome. There is absolutely no case to be made for allowing GM ingredients into the food chain. It is simply a sign that those who hold political office are afraid of confronting the corporations who have absolutely no interest in human, animal or environmental health.

Pan President, we count on you to support the promotion of good, sustainable farming practices and real food, by refusing to allow genetically modified seeds and plants to be imported and grown in your Country.

Sincerely,

[Your Name]

[Address]