PowerPointPrsentation

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Workshop B5
Coexistence and Seeds
Christian Schlatter, Research Institute on
Organic Farming, Switzerland
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Presentations content

• Regulation of seed in a broader national context
• Spatial aspects of coexistence
• Seeds in Organic Agriculture Organic X Seed
  Database

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GMO and Coexistence in Switzerland

• Law Coexistence by law Bio ordinance bans use
  of GMONo market admission
• Economy Trade bans GMO food because of critical
  consumersSuisse Garantie and IP SUISSENo GMO
  Crops
• Politics Gentechfrei-Initiative Legal base to
  tackle the problem

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Decision Tree for GMO Seeds in CH according to
seed ordinance
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GMOs in Seeds Regulation

• Swiss Ordinance on Seeds (SR 916.151(since 1999))
• GMOs seeds are labelled
• Threshold of 0.5 per cent (Food/Feed 0.9)
• Approval according the Ordinance on Feed/Food
• Approval according the Swiss Ordiance on GMOs or
  an equal Risk Assessment (e.g. EU)
• Quality Assurance system for seed companies
• Valid for organic agriculture
• Ordinance is controlled by the Government
  (Tomatoes, Chicory, Corn, Oil Seed Rape,
  Soybeans, Sugar Beet, Fodder Beet)
• Since 1999 only GM-Corn was detected

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Spatial Aspects of Coexistence

• WWF Project on spatial aspects of coexistence for
  Switzerland

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The problem on the national levelLabel
production per community
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Estimated spatial probability of OGM cultivation
in Switzerland
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Case Studies

• Coexistence on farm level What does it mean in
  spatial terms?

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The farm levelWheat production
Farm 1 Crop production 7 neighbours 100 m
pollen dispersal for wheat
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Case study Reusstal Neighbours
26 Neighbours
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Pollen transfer distances for oil seed rape
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Areas to supervise for typical Swiss farm
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Case study Isolation of GMO farm
1 rape field 18 communities 3 cantons
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Seeds in Organic Agriculture

• Organic X Seed Database

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OrganicXSeeds

• Today An instrument to assure organic seed for
  Organic Agriculture

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OrganicXSeeds

• A large amount of seed is imported (e.g. oil rape
  seed about 100 )
• A requirement from the federal office of
  agriculture
• An instrument to provide information on
  availability of biological seed according to the
  regulation on biological agriculture (SR910.18)
• The whole organic seed on the Swiss market is
  registered.
• It is used as a base for permissions for the
  bio-seed service.

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Step 1 Find organic seed for your memberstate
Here Oil seed rape
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Step 2 Check availability of seed adress of
seed producer Oil rape seed in Engl.
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Possible addition for GMO handling Comment on
nearest GMO farm
Attention The nearest rape GMO producer is in
Filton (about 8 km dist.)

• Tomorrow An instrument to assure certified seed
  for GMO free production

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Weight of OrganicXSeeds Number of organic seed
product offers

• 5533 products (November 2004)

Belgium
180
587
Switzerland
Germany
2546
2220
United Kingdom
Number of products
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Summary

• Coexistence in federal ordinance
• Problems on farm level due to small-scaled
  agriculture
• Need for organic agriculture to use certified
  seed (federal regulation) Organic X Seed databse
• Possibilities to reduce problems on different
  levels
• Political Moratorium initiative
• Economic Private initiative to organise
  agriculture and seed production
• Technical Database

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• Thank you for your attention
• Christian Schlatter, FiBL
• CH- 5070 Frick
• Christian.schlatter_at_fibl.org