Italian campaigners have stepped up their fight against genetically modified crops following a report that bees steer clear of GM plants.
Environmental group Greenpeace Italia and top farmers' association Coldiretti have both sounded the alarm in the wake of the Canadian discovery, details of which were published in Italian daily La Stampa this week.
"The cultivation of GM crops threatens both biodiversity and the free choice of consumers," said Federica Ferrario, the director of Greenpeace's anti-GM campaign.
"This study clearly shows that bees don't like GM crops and we should defend their right to choose," she added.
Coldiretti urged Italian farmers to adopt a "zero-tolerance approach towards biotechnology".
"The fact that bees avoid fields sown with genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and the consequent reduction in pollination activity is a scientific alarm for agriculture and the environment," it said.
The study, initially published by the Ecological Society of America before being picked up in Italy, looked at pollination and the response of wild bees to organic, conventional and GM rapeseed crops.
It measured the abundance of bees and the pollination deficit, which is the difference between potential and actual pollination.
The results showed no pollination deficit in organic fields, a slight pollination deficit in conventional fields and a high pollination deficit in GM fields.
Likewise, bees were most abundant in organic fields and least so in GM fields.
"The diffidence of these bees towards GM crops is a signal from nature that should not be ignored," said Coldiretti.
"Bees' ability to distinguish between GM and normal plants shows the two crops are not the same".
Italy, which has a thriving organic market, has been in the forefront of European efforts to fight the introduction of GM crops.
In 2005, the Italian parliament approved a law aimed at preventing the contamination of conventional and organic products by GM crops.
The law bans the cultivation of GM crops in open fields, permitting only restricted and protected testing of such organisms.
GM seeds must be kept strictly separated from conventional seeds and farmers whose crops are accidentally contaminated can claim compensation.
The law also gives regional governments the right to decide whether GM crops are allowed at a local level, a measure welcomed by farmers' associations.
Nearly all of the country's 20 regions have implemented legislation against GM crops.
Biotech groups criticized the law as overly restrictive and accused parliament of bowing to unsubstantiated media hype.
But GM crops continue to meet with strong resistance in Italy, where organic and 'traditional' produce are growing money-spinners.
In fact, Italy has a higher turnover from organic farming than any other European Union nation.
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, while eight out of ten consumers distrust them, describing them as "less natural".
