“Genetically engineered plants are patented. Farmers are not allowed to save or exchange seed from their crops. Through patenting a thousand-year-old tradition is turned into a criminal act.  This cannot work. I’m convinced that organic farming is the only option 
- for the South and for the North.”
_{Vandana Shiva,  winner of the Alternative
Nobel prize 1993}

There are useful questions to ask when assessing new technologies. In the case of genetically modified organisms (GMO’s) there are no benefits for either consumers or producers – only for the companies producing them.

There is no doubt about the incompatibility of GMO’s with Organic Agriculture’s principles. IFOAM is opposed to genetic engineering in all of agriculture, in view of the unprecedented danger it represents for the entire biosphere and the particular economic and environmental risks it poses for organic producers.

IFOAM believes that genetic engineering in agriculture causes negative and irreversible environmental impacts through the release of organisms which have never before existed in nature and which cannot be recalled. There is a pollution of the gene-pool of cultivated crops, microorganisms and animals and of off-farm organisms. Releasing GMO’s implies denial of free choice, both for farmers and consumers and a violation of farmers’ fundamental property rights and endangerment of their economic independence. These are all unacceptable threats to individuals, humanity and our earth. These practices are incompatible with the Principles of Organic Agriculture.(IFOAM 2005)

Organic Agriculture offers a real alternative. There are already millions of organic farmers, big or small, poor or rich, demonstrating daily that organic agriculture can produce sufficient, safe and healthy food for everyone – of course without using GMO’s.