An anti-biotech 'super-alliance' is launching Italy's largest ever-campaign against genetically modified organisms (GMOs) this weekend.
The 28-strong coalition of groups representing farmers, consumers, scientists, environmentalists, aid volunteers and politicians is embarking on an initiative aimed at raising national and local government awareness about the extent of opposition to GMOs.
The high-speed campaign kicking off on Saturday will seek to collect three million signatures in a petition against biotech crops over the space of just two months.
Describing the drive as a kind of "referendum" on GMOs, the voice of the initiative, Mario Capanna, admitted the campaign would be forced to move at a gruelling pace.
"We will have to collect 50,000 signatures each day in order to meet our target," he said.
"We will try to start off more quickly, aiming to collect 750,000 signatures before the end of September.
"We will present these to the foreign press in order to show that Italy is mobilizing against GMOs and we will then seek a meeting with the government, requesting an indefinite moratorium on such organisms".
The coalition, called Italy-Europe: Free of GMOs, was set up in July in response to signs that the government was breaking with Italy's traditional stance of blanket opposition to biotech products in any form.
MINISTER WARNS THAT RIGID STANCE ON GMOs HOLDING ITALY BACK.
Agriculture Minister Paolo De Castro has on several occasions warned that an "overly rigid stance" on GMOs could hold Italy back on the international scientific stage, and has advocated limited experiments in fields such as medicine, the environment and food safety.
But the government was forced to retreat earlier this year after plans to allow testing of GM versions of Italian staples earlier met with widespread outcry.
A decision to grow trial crops in open fields further inflamed critics, who said there was a strong risk that organic produce would be accidentally contaminated.
The issue is particularly explosive in Italy, which is the largest producer of organic crops in Europe and the fourth largest in the world.
Farmers' association Coldiretti has estimated that organic farmers would see exports fall by around 60%, amounting to a six-billion-euro loss in profits.
The domestic market, in which 74% of Italians believe GM products are harmful to health, would also be badly affected, it said.
Speaking ahead of the launch of the new anti-biotech campaign, Capanna said he was confident the alliance would meet its goal of steering the government away from a more relaxed approach to GMOs.
"Our strength lies in what we represent and what we are defending: millions of euros in revenue produced by the Italian agricultural food sector, which accounts for 15% of GDP," he said.
"This is a strategic sector, one of Italy's most important, and must not be threatened by GMOs".
The campaign gets under way on Saturday with stands collecting signatures in downtown city squares in Milan, Florence, Naples, Bologna and Bari.
The alliance has a press conference scheduled with international media outlets at the end of the month.
"This movement, created in Italy, could well expand to the rest of Europe with the right awareness," explained Capanna.
On October 8, alliance representatives will meet with key government and parliamentary figures to discuss the issue and request a halt to any further moves towards opening Italy to GMOs.
