Italian farmers are on the warpath over testing of genetically modified versions of wine, olive oil and tomatoes - the staples of the famous Mediterranean diet.
Protesting in front of parliament on Wednesday, farmers' union Coldiretti demanded an immediate halt to open-field testing of such GM crops, greenlighted last month.
They also urged parliament to protect Italy's burgeoning organic food industry from GM contamination.
Demand for organically grown produce will fall "dramatically" if GM testing goes ahead, Coldiretti chief Sergio Marini said.
The organization estimates that organic farmers will 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, said Coldiretti.
Farmers and environmentalists have been up in arms over the recent decision by the agriculture and environment ministries to authorize trials on a series of Italian staples.
STAPLES OF MEDITERRANEAN DIET SCHEDULED FOR TESTS.
GM olive trees, vines, tomatoes, maize, eggplant, strawberries and citrus fruits are all scheduled for tests.
The decision to grow trial crops in open fields has further inflamed critics, who say there is the risk that organic crops will 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.
Last month's decision marked something of a U-turn in Italy's official policy on genetically modified organisms, which has traditionally been one of blanket opposition to biotech products in any form.
Agriculture Minister Paolo De Castro has said he believes an overly rigid stance on GMOs could hold Italy back on the international scientific stage.
He has advocated very limited testing, pointing out that GM plants could provide advances in a variety of fields, including medicine, the environment and food safety.
However, the minister spoke out strongly against a decision last week by the European Union to lower its accidental-contamination threshold to 0.9% for organic produce. This means items can be labelled as organic, even if they have some GMO content, provided it is below 0.9%.
De Castro has promised to introduce a decree that will fix the accidental contamination level at 0.1% for Italian products regardless of the situation elsewhere in Europe.
This move has been praised by another farmers' association, CIA, which attended Wednesday's demonstration outside parliament.
But other parties participating in the event were more critical of the government.
Former agriculture minister Gianni Alemanno, a vocal opponent of GM testing under the previous, centre-right government, said he fully backed Coldiretti's demands.
"De Castro's next step must be a national law guaranteeing zero tolerance for biotech contamination in any form," said Alemanno, stressing this was "vital for consumer protection".
Green Senator Loredana De Petris, head of the Senate agriculture committee, said the protocols authorizing trial GM crops had a number of major shortcomings.
"For example, they provide no compensation for any damage, and nor do they require those carrying out the tests to warn the owners of nearby fields in advance," she said.
A recent poll by the National Food and Nutrition Research Institute found that 82% of Italy's farmers would refuse to grow GM crops on their land if given the choice, while eight out of ten consumers mistrust them, describing them as "less natural".
