GLOBAL 2000 on genetic engineering
The majority of people in Austria know that genetically engineered crops do not belong on our fields and our plates. No advantages compensate for the many risks genetic engineering poses. But a handful of corporations – among the Monsanto, Bayer and BASF – and their lobbyists are trying to establish agricultural genetic engineering with politicians and scientists in Europe. The industry and certain politicians never seem to tire of promoting the advantages: they speak of increased revenues, less chemistry on the fields, fighting world hunger, and the generation of jobs. None of these big promises have been fulfilled. Rather, the contrary seems to be true. The growing of genetically engineered crops in Austria’s small-structured agriculture might mean the end of being able to choose whether to produce – and to eat – food that has no background of genetic engineering.