Querida Madeira

Foste a primeira!

"Last week, the commission quietly let the deadline pass for opposing Portugal’s request, allowing Madeira, which is one of Portugal’s autonomous regions, to become the first E.U. territory to get formal permission from Brussels to remain entirely free of genetically modified organisms.
(...)
Individual European countries and regions have banned certain genetically modified crops before. Many consumers and farmers in countries like Austria, France and Italy regard the crops as potentially dangerous and likely to contaminate organically produced food.
(...)
But the case of Madeira represents a significant landmark, because it is the first time the commission, which runs the day-to-day affairs of the European Union, has permitted a country to impose such a sweeping and definitive rejection of the technology.

The Madeirans’ main concerns focused on preserving the archipelago’s biodiversity and its forest of subtropical laurel trees.
Such forests, known as laurisilva, were once widespread on the European mainland but were wiped out thousands of years ago during an earlier period of climate change.

That has left Madeira with “much the largest extent of laurel forest surviving in the world, with a unique suite of plants and animals,” according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, which named the Madeiran laurisilva a World Heritage Site in 1999.

The “risk to nature presented by the deliberate release of GMOs is so dangerous and poses such a threat to the environmental and ecological health of Madeira, that it is not worthwhile risking their use, either directly in the agricultural sector or even on an experimental basis,” the Portuguese told the commission, using the acronym for genetically modified organisms."

O mais estranho na noticia é o seguinte:

"In an internal memorandum seen by the International Herald Tribune, the commission said it had let the deadline in the Madeira case pass without a formal assessment and more fanfare because that could “create misunderstandings and send confusing signals” at a time when Europe was reconsidering its approach to cultivating GMOs."

Ou seja, uma tentativa propositada da UE para silenciar o acontecimento. Serei a única a achar isto chocante, ofensivo para a população da UE que demonstra claramente o seu desagrado pelos OGM?

O artigo explica a pressão que a Monsanto tem exercido para a Europa aceitar os OGM:

"In reality, the Madeira case marks the unofficial beginning of a new — and potentially highly contentious — policy that would give European nations and regions far greater freedom to decide when to ban such crops."

"The policy would be aimed at overcoming an institutionalized stalemate in Europe that has left governments unable to reach decisions on whether to allow cultivation of new biotech products. "

"U.S. agricultural companies like Monsanto have long complained about lack of access to European markets and, in particular, about restrictions on cultivating crops." 

Mais abaixo lemos a posição do organismo europeu para segurança alimentar: 

"The commission’s decision to allow Madeira its ban came only four months after the European Food Safety Authority, the main body tasked with advising the commission on food safety, categorically recommended ignoring Portugal’s concerns about the effect of GMOs.
The agency concluded in January that, “no new scientific evidence, in terms of risk to human and animal health and the environment, was provided that would justify a prohibition of the cultivation of GM plants in the Autonomous Region of Madeira.” 

E assim percebemos os verdadeiros interesses da autoridade europeia de segurança alimentar que são puramente económicos e visam apoiar as gigantes corporações de biotecnologia como a Monsanto.

Esta é uma luta pelos agricultores europeus. Pela saúde. Mas acima de tudo pela liberdade. Custa acreditar que no séc. XXI na Europa se queira acabar com a liberdade dos agricultores e dos cidadãos em cultivar os próprios alimentos e em proteger a nossa biodiversidade agrícola que é a base da saúde na Europa e no mundo. O que se está a passar com a democracia?

Dei uma volta pelos jornais portugueses online e não encontrei nada (surpresa das surpresas). O excerto relativo à UE "without fanfarre" quanto a espalhar a boa noticia nao é mais do que um bloqueio ao nosso direito de noticiar esta pequena vitoria contra os OGM (o que é muito preocupante). A noticia vem na media portuguesa ou anda tudo muito ocupado e entretido com o Benfica e o Papa (assuntos muito essenciais para o futuro dos portugueses)?

Podem ler a noticia completa no The New York Times aqui