5
#000000
#FFFFFF
For Immediate Release
February, 21 2011, 11:00pm EDT
Contact:
Stefanie Hundsdorfer – Greenpeace EU agriculture policy adviser:
+32 (0)496 161582 (mobile), stefanie.hundsdorfer@greenpeace.org
Mark Breddy – Greenpeace EU communications manager:
+32 (0)496 156229 (mobile), mark.breddy@greenpeace.org
EU Farmers Ditch GM Crops, Industry Figures Show Drop in Cultivation
A Greenpeace statement on today's vote on zero tolerance for GM contamination in animal feed will be sent once the vote has taken place
BRUSSELS
Industry data released on Tuesday is expected to confirm that farmers are abandoning GM crops in Europe, following a trend of increasing public rejection in the EU, said Greenpeace. The International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), a biotech industry-funded body, will publish its annual report on the acreage of land planted with GM crops, showing continued decline in GM cultivation in Europe.
Official figures from the European Union show that in 2010, the GM maize cultivation acreage in the EU declined by 13% compared to the previous year. [1] ISAAA figures that will be released later today are expected to closely mirror this decline. The sharpest decline took place in Romania (-75% compared to 2009) and the Czech Republic (-28% compared to 2009). In 2009, the ISAAA had also reported a 12% EU-wide decline compared to 2008. [2]
The cultivation of Monsanto's GM maize MON810 is currently banned in seven EU countries due to environmental and health risks. [3] Cultivation of Amflora, BASF's antibiotic-resistant GM potato, the only other crop authorised in Europe since March last year, is restricted to only 268 hectares (or the equivalent of 375 football pitches) in Sweden, Germany and the Czech Republic, with cultivation expected to decline to under 20 hectares in 2011. [4] Meanwhile, public rejection of GM crops in Europe has increased to 61%, according to EU polls. [5]
Greenpeace EU agriculture policy adviser Stefanie Hundsdorfer said: "Today's European data shows that GM crops are failing in the field and on the market. Farmers and consumers are not falling for biotech industry propaganda. GM crops are not more productive and are less resistant to extreme climate conditions than normal crops. They do however present a serious risk for our environment."
Greenpeace is a global, independent campaigning organization that uses peaceful protest and creative communication to expose global environmental problems and promote solutions that are essential to a green and peaceful future.
+31 20 718 2000LATEST NEWS
International Convoys Deliver Aid to Cuba as Russian Tanker Moves to Defy US Oil Blockade
"People are looking at Trump's siege of this island with horror," said convoy organizer David Adler. "They understand... if it's successfully applied on a small, peaceful island nation like Cuba, they could be next."
Mar 19, 2026
As the United States strangles Cuba with an economic blockade, a convoy of activists from around the world is seeking to break it by traveling to the island with more than five tons of humanitarian aid.
The “Nuestra America Convoy” began arriving on the island on Wednesday with more than five tons of desperately needed supplies valued at more than $570,000.
Progressive International, the transnational left-wing organization that organized the campaign, said on Thursday that it had already delivered several tons of medical supplies to hospitals around Havana. They included cancer drugs, antibiotics, pain medication, surgical materials, and treatments for chronic conditions.
Attempts are also underway to directly defy the US oil blockade. On Wednesday, The Guardian reported that a sanctioned Russian tanker had set sail for Cuba with more than 730,000 barrels of crude oil and was expected to make landfall on March 23. Cuba has not imported any oil since January 9.
The activists arrived in Cuba days after the island was roiled by a total blackout amid the American blockade, which has effectively cut off 90% of its fuel imports—disrupting everything from medical care to food harvesting to garbage collection.
President Donald Trump enacted the blockade in January via an executive order, threatening to place tariffs on any nation selling oil to Cuba in a bid to cripple the island's economy and force regime change, after more than 60 years of a crushing US embargo.
As the crisis on the island escalated this week, the president threatened to take the island outright, saying he could "do anything I want with it."
"The consequences of the US blockade are lethal, for newborns and parents, for the elderly and the sick," the organizers of the convoy said. "That is why we are mobilizing by air, land, and sea in solidarity with the Cuban people."
The project began as a small flotilla, but has morphed into a much broader effort and attracted support from well-known public figures, including former UK Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn and US Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.).
Other famous faces, including the Swedish humanitarian and climate activist Greta Thunberg, the journalists Ryan Grim and Owen Jones, the left-wing streamer Hasan Piker, and the Irish rap group Kneecap, are also expected to travel to Cuba as part of the convoy.
More than 120 activists from at least 19 countries touched down with the convoy's first delegation at Havana's airport on Wednesday. But they are just the first of several groups expected to arrive in the coming days.
Several more vessels from Mexico are expected to arrive on the island on Saturday, carrying "food, medicine, and essential supplies." In total, activists with the effort hope to transport 20 tons of aid.
"When we first put out this call to respond to the aggravated humanitarian crisis on the island, thousands of people heard that call," said David Adler, the co-coordinator of Progressive International.
"People are looking at Trump's siege of this island with horror," he said, "not only because it has disastrous consequences... but also because they understand that this really barbaric tactic of a siege, if it's successfully applied on a small, peaceful island nation like Cuba, they could be next."
The activists involved in the effort have said they took inspiration from the Global Sumud Flotilla that attempted to break Israel's siege of Gaza with humanitarian aid last fall. However, the effort to provide aid to Cuba is very different.
Whereas the ships attempting to enter Gaza were intercepted by the Israeli military, activists entering Cuba are unlikely to face physical danger, as the blockade is not being enforced militarily and the Cuban government has welcomed their arrival.
(Video by The National)
Nathan J. Robinson and Alex Skopic, editors of the American left-wing magazine Current Affairs, who are traveling to Cuba as part of the convoy on Friday, said in an article published earlier this week they were outraged by the lack of action taken by the US government and other governments around the world, especially since it's "perfectly legal to bring humanitarian supplies to the island."
"The fact that it’s fallen to a handful of activists to carry out this work should bring shame to every elected official, everywhere in the world, who hasn’t launched a ship full of supplies to Havana," they said. "If this mission becomes a big enough international news story, perhaps more governments can be pressured to do exactly that."
"Beyond food, medicine, and energy infrastructure, this mission sends a message. As Americans, we want to make it crystal clear that the Trump administration does not speak for us, and we’re sickened by what Trump and [Secretary of State Marco] Rubio are doing to the Cuban people in the name of US foreign policy," they continued. "We’re determined to do what we can, and we’re going to make sure the people of Cuba do not stand alone."
Keep Reading
Show Less
Trump Admin Readies Big Gift for Wall Street While Waging War, Gutting Aid Programs
“At a time of extreme and growing inequality," said one critic, "today’s proposals will drain lending away from Main Street families’ needs and priorities and further enrich the already wealthy on Wall Street."
Mar 19, 2026
The Trump administration and Federal Reserve unveiled proposals Thursday that would significantly reduce capital requirements for the largest banks in the United States, potentially setting the stage for another financial industry collapse as the US-Israeli war on Iran destabilizes the global economy and jacks up prices for consumers.
Under the new rules proposed by the Fed, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, large banks would have to hold nearly 5% less capital on average. The advocacy organization Better Markets noted that the proposals—combined with other deregulatory actions taken by the Trump administration and the Fed over the past year—would return Wall Street banks' capital requirements "to the irresponsibly low 2007 levels they had just before the 2008 crash."
“At a time of extreme and growing inequality, when tens of millions of Americans are struggling to pay their bills, today’s proposals will drain lending away from Main Street families’ needs and priorities and further enrich the already wealthy on Wall Street and the top 10% of Americans they focus on serving," Dennis Kelleher, the president of Better Markets, said in a statement. "The banking agencies’ proposals to loosen capital rules are a victory for Wall Street lobbying, and claims to the contrary are nothing more than an attempt to mislead the American people."
Fed Gov. Michael Barr, who was nominated by former President Joe Biden, was the central bank board's lone dissenting voice against the new rules, a product of years of aggressive Wall Street lobbying for less stringent regulations in the wake of the Great Recession.
"Today's proposals, if adopted, would harm the resilience of banks and the US financial system," Barr warned in a statement. "There are suggestions that liquidity requirements could also be reduced. Additionally, Federal Reserve supervisory staff have been cut by over 30%, and supervisory practices have been weakened. Banking is built on trust. I worry greatly that these actions are rapidly eroding that trust."
The new deregulatory package, which will be subject to a 90-day public comment period before it's finalized, comes as President Donald Trump is waging an expensive and deadly war on Iran with no end in sight and attacking social programs at home, from Medicaid to nutrition assistance.
“With private credit markets cratering, AI transforming the workforce, and Trump’s Iran war threatening the world economy, we need healthy, resilient, well-capitalized banks," said Bartlett Naylor, an economist for the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen. "Lessons learned after millions lost their jobs, homes, and savings following the 2008 megabank crash must not be ignored."
"Trump’s bank regulators propose to tear at the already tissue-thin layer of solvency levels at the nation’s banks," said Naylor. "Lowering solvency standards won’t generate more loans; it will only send banks closer to failure."
Matt Stoller, an anti-monopoly researcher and author of the BIG newsletter, wrote that the juxtaposition of a quagmire in Iran, Wall Street deregulation, and millions of Americans losing health insurance "tells the story" of the Trump administration.
Today's WSJ front page tells the story of the Trump admin.
#1: Hegseth Says ‘No Time Set’ on Ending Operations in Iran
#2: U.S. Regulators Propose More Lenient Capital Rules for Big Banks
#3: Millions of Americans Are Going Uninsured Following Expiration of ACA Subsidies pic.twitter.com/26jKsQuNc4
— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) March 19, 2026
The effort to curb banks' capital requirements was spearheaded by Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman, a Trump appointee whose nomination last year was criticized by watchdogs as a "gift to the banking industry."
Kelleher of Better Markets said Thursday that "such counterproductive, shortsighted, and wrongheaded rulemaking isn’t a surprise given that the interests of Wall Street’s biggest banks are driving the priorities at the banking agencies, rather than facts, merit, and the public interest."
"The worst is at the Federal Reserve, where the senior regulatory staff comes from Wall Street’s top DC lobbyist (the Bank Policy Institute), Goldman Sachs, and one of Wall Street’s top law firms (a former partner is now the director responsible for supervising and regulating his recent Wall Street clients)," Kelleher observed. "That’s why mindless deregulation, especially for the biggest Wall Street banks, is at the top of the agenda, just as it was in the years before the 2008 crash."
Keep Reading
Show Less
Watchdog Blasts Mullin’s Self-Enrichment as Fetterman Joins GOP to Advance Trump DHS Pick
"Mullin’s long list of conflicts of interest even as he seeks this next level of public office is reprehensible."
Mar 19, 2026
Government watchdog Public Citizen on Thursday slammed the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee for voting to advance the nomination of Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin to be the next US homeland security secretary.
Shortly after the committee delivered an 8-to-7 vote to advance Mullin's (R-Okla.) nomination out of committee, Public Citizen co-president Lisa Gilbert described the move as "simply inappropriate."
"It is inappropriate because of his self-enrichment," Gilbert said. "Mullin’s long list of conflicts of interest even as he seeks this next level of public office is reprehensible."
The New York Times reported on Sunday that Mullin has grown significantly wealthier throughout his tenure first as a US congressman then as a US senator, in part because he is "one of the most prolific stock buyers in Congress."
According to financial disclosure forms cited by the Times, Mullin's net worth in 2024 was between $29 million and $97 million, a massive jump from the estimated net worth of $2.8 million to $9 million he reported in 2012.
In addition to citing Mullin's self-enrichment during his political career, Gilbert decried the senator's past statements defending actions taken by federal immigration enforcement officials, including the fatal shootings of Minneapolis residents Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
"It is inappropriate because Mullin has consistently defended ICE agents involved in fatal shootings," said Gilbert, "and justified the use of lethal force in enforcement operations, rather than calling for accountability or reform of use-of-force policies. It is inappropriate because he treats protest against ICE operations as a prosecutable offense rather than a legitimate exercise of First Amendment rights and an expression of community concern."
While Mullin on Wednesday walked back his past attack on Pretty as "deranged," he stood by his claim that the shooting of Good was entirely justified.
Mullin's nomination advanced to the Senate floor after Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) broke with his party, canceling out the "no" vote on the committee delivered by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who got into an angry spat with Mullin on Wednesday over past comments the Oklahoma Republican made justifying a 2017 assault on his colleague from Kentucky.
In a social media post defending his vote to advance Mullin, Fetterman argued that "we need a leader" at the US Department of Homeland Security and said his vote in favor of the nomination was "rooted in a strong committed, constructive working relationship with Senator Mullin for our nation’s security."
Keep Reading
Show Less
Most Popular