Mr. Potato Head Goes Organic

The PieperPad (Dutch for "Potato Trail") is a 1000 kilometer long cycling tour designed to raise awareness about the importance of ecological farming in the Netherlands by encouraging members of the public to get out into the countryside and enjoy potatoes, a well loved Dutch staple, in a totally new way.

The Pieperpad is an initiative by Greenpeace Netherlands together with Biologica. Both organisations defend biodiversity and campaign on environmentally and socially sustainable agriculture.

In another bid to control our food, Bayer, the German chemical giant is hoping to get EU approval for the import of their GM rice variety LL62. This rice has genetically manipulated rice to withstand higher doses of a toxic pesticide called glufosinate, which is considered to be so dangerous to humans and the environment that it will soon be banned from Europe. If this rice gets approval - farmers in the US and elsewhere may soon start planting the manipulated crop. 

The Coalition against Bayer Dangers demands an immediate ban on the herbicide glufosinate and a suspension of all approvals of glufosinate-resistant crops. European Parliament members voted last week to ban pesticides classified as carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic to reproduction. Permits for 22 substances, among them glufosinate, will not be renewed.

Bayer CropScience, based in Germany, sells glufosinate under the trademarks Basta and Liberty. The substance is one of the best-selling herbicides in the world, with sales in 2007 of €241 million. Bayer is currently expanding glufosinate production capacity in Germany.

A European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) evaluation states that glufosinate poses a high risk to mammals. The substance is classified as reprotoxic, with laboratory experiments causing premature birth, intra-uterine death and abortions in rats. Japanese studies show that the substance can also hamper the development and activity of the human brain. The new EU regulation declares a ban on all CRM (carcinogenic, reprotoxic and mutagenic) pesticides from categories I and II. Glufosinate is classified as falling in reprotoxic category II. Already in 2006 Swedish authorities demanded an EU-wide ban.

In the U.S. and Latin America the ingredient is widely used as a "super herbicide" for genetically modified crops, mainly on rapeseed, maize, soy bean, cotton, rice and sugar beet. Bayer requested EU approval for several glufosinate-resistant plants, among them a genetically altered rice (LL Rice 62). In 2006 a similar rice (LL Rice 601) that was never approved was found in food supplies across the world and led to the largest GM contamination scandal so far.