Hungary Destroys All Monsanto GMO Maize Fields

In an effort to rid the country of Monsanto’s GMO products, Hungary has stepped up the pace. This looks like its going to be another slap in the face for Monsanto and other large scale agribusiness. A new regulation was introduced this March which stipulates that seeds are supposed to be checked for GMO before they are introduced to the market. Unfortunately, some GMO seeds made it to the farmers without them knowing it.

Almost 1000 acres of maize found to have been grown with genetically modified seeds have been destroyed throughout Hungary deputy state secretary of the Ministry of Rural Development Lajos Bognar said. The GMO maize has been ploughed under, said Lajos Bognar, but pollen has not spread from the maize, he added.

Unlike several EU members, GMO seeds are banned in Hungary. The checks will continue despite the fact that seed traders are obliged to make sure that their products are GMO free, Bognar said.

During their investigation, controllers have found Pioneer and Monsanto products among the seeds planted.

The free movement of goods within the EU means that authorities will not investigate how the seeds arrived in Hungary but they will check where the goods can be found, Bognar said. Regional public radio reported that the two biggest international seed producing companies are affected in the matter and GMO seeds could have been sown on up to thousands of hectares in the country.

Most of the local farmers have complained since they just discovered they were using GMO seeds. With season already under way, it is too late to sow new seeds, so this years harvest has been lost.

And to make things even worse for the farmers, the company that distributed the seeds in Baranya county is under liquidation. Therefore, if any compensation is paid by the international seed producers, the money will be paid primarily to that company’s creditors, rather than the farmers.

h/t AllAboutFeed

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Photo Credit: faungg

40 thoughts on “Hungary Destroys All Monsanto GMO Maize Fields”

  1. If only America had as much sense as Hungary – Have you even heard of all the side effects coming from these horrible GMO plants? – The animals that eat them are worse off too. I talk about these things and about eating healthy on my blog here: http://trylivingorganic.com

    Lets start living Beyond Organic!

  2. If only America had as much sense as Hungary – Have you even heard of all the side effects coming from these horrible GMO plants? – The animals that eat them are worse off too. I talk about these things and about eating healthy on my blog here: http://trylivingorganic.com

    Lets start living Beyond Organic!

  3. For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it hath no stalk: the bud shall yield no meal: if so be it yield, a strange nation shall swallow it up. Hosea 8: 7

    1. While I totally agree with the sentiment of this quote, I have a huge problem with the use of the word ‘they’. It implys judgement upon others, finger pointing and exclusive blameless uninvolvement, all unfounded. While we all continue to buy food from the local supermarket, suporting the GMO industry with our dollars, then ‘WE’ are part of the problem, not the solution.
      Thus, to generate a more correct and helpful mentality, the quote should read:
      For WE have sown the wind, and WE shall reap the whirlwind: … and become the strange and twisted nation that shall swallow it up.

      1. Obama quoted 06-24-12:
        “We answer to the American people”
        Didn’t President Obama promise the American people to label all our foods containing GMOs before his election 2008? Has he broken his promise? Can we trust Obama to keep any promises he makes in this campaign?
        Over 90% Of Americans were then and still are against GMOS.
        http://fooddemocracynow.org/blog/2011/oct/3/obama_
        The big question is: Why did Obama lie to the American people so grossly just to get elected?
        There has been nothing done on this promise. Not even a mention of any action unless this is being kept secret.
        Will Obama do it again in the upcoming 2012 election?

        1. bfreewithrp: What moronic sentiment. If Obama could do everything unilaterally, he would.

          Look no further than the GOP if you have a complaint as they try to barricade Dems at every turn.

        2. Ideally, politicians shouldn’t make promises they know they can’t keep. While Obama may have promised to label GMOs (and close a certain facility in Cuba), once he got into power he may have realised there was little to no chance of getting such a motion passed (no doubt courtesy of the phenomenal lobbying power of the food industry, as well as the possibility of the industry threatening to either withhold party funds or fight the decision in the courts if it did get passed).

          Unfortunately, he probably decided the best approach was to keep quiet and hope no-one noticed rather than be honest and say something to the effect of “I’d like to do this, but I can’t as there’d be no chance of getting the motion passed in either the House or Congress.”

  4. Great article, and you’ll be getting a trackback on it, since I’ll be blogging it and adding my own spin.

    I did want to call Planetsave’s attention to its google (?) advertisers. You might want to weed a couple of them out using your ban list in your admin panel. This is one of them, going under the VERY misleading name “Resourceful Earth” which is in truth an astroturf group with a very cleverly constructed petition page. This is the url that the ad leads to. http://resourcefulearth.org/join-the-fight-001/?utm_source=Targeted%2BDisplay&utm_medium=Banner&utm_term=StrongPetitionV1&utm_content=AD3A%2B160x600&utm_campaign=Resourceful%2BEarth

  5. Can you please supply us with the source of this report? I have looked in vain to find any original source material about these events, or the background.
    Thanks!

  6. …..Now, if they’d just do the same thing to the soy crops!!! It is bad enough trying to find food in a grocery store that doesn’t have soy in the ingredients……. it is the common denominator…….and if one is Allergic to SOY……… monsanto doesn’t care!

  7. As I understand it, Monsanto GMO seeds produce sterile crops, so farmers can’t use some of the seed from thier harvest to replant with. They have to order new seed from Monsanto. This ensures Monsanto will have a continuous need for thier product. This gets worse as GMO crops will overtake unenhanced crops and make those species extinct. It’s already occured in many wheat and corn species. There is an international seed vault being compiled as I type this to try and preserve the many endangered species of seeds. Monsanto will be soilent green if left unchecked.

    1. Good thinking, but there are a couple of problems with the seed vault idea:
      Several years ago some organic farmers in British Columbia, Canada started a seed vault, and someone mentioned it on the web like you have. Couple of months later Monsantos boys passed through their small town set fire to the seed shed and burnt it to the ground. Monsanto is a Nasty mentality across the board. So if you have a vault started good for you, but keep it quiet.
      Second problem is that All seeds have a limited shelf life. Most seeds need to be replanted and new seeds resaved every 3-5 years to stay viable. However all types of corn and maise seeds have a maximum shelf life of only 2 years. This means the saved seeds need to be replanted and new seeds resaved at least every second year. This requires a huge amount of labour and land use. But you are right, we all need to do whatever it takes to save the open-pollenated seeds that have served all mankind flawlessly for thousands of years, especially of the global food suply. Good luck.

      1. I saw a story on a cross culture channel about a huge underground structure in ice where they have stored an unbelievable amount of seeds for future preservation. I believe if seeds are kept frozen, they go dormant until planted. I have preserved seeds for years by freezing them and planting them later. Problem is, this also applies to frankenseeds.

        1. Many flower seeds can lay dormant and still germinate after many years. Have seen parts of the Sahara, the Kalahare and Nulaba deserts bloom when rains came after 30-40 years of dormancy. Its a fantastic sight.
          And you are correct in saving seeds in the fridge or freezer year to year.
          But vegetable seeds dont usually survive long dormancy.
          However, there is an easy way to find out. Take a couple of paper towels, dampen and wring out any excess water. Sprinkle a half dozen or so seeds on the towel, spread them apart, then roll up the towel. Place it inside a plastic bread bag, tie the top and place on the top of the hot water cylinder or fridge at the back where it will get the heat. After a week, unroll the paper and see how many have sprouted. If you are not sure roll up and replace in the warm place for another week and then check again. If none has sprouted the seed is dead. If half have sprouted can still use but sew two seeds at a time. Sprouted seeds are too delicate to try to peal off the paper, but you can carefully tear the paper around any sprouted seeds and plant paper and all. I use this test to check any/all saved seeds before I plant.

  8. if I was starving in Africa I wouldn’t give a shit if life saving food was GMO. this was so wasteful it makes me sick. you don’t want to eat GMO? you can bet your ass that there are other ppl that would kill for it. how about they turn on the news and see babies dying in their mothers arms in Africa because they have no crops at all? must be nice to be able to burn crops and still go to bed with a full stomach, some ppl don’t have that luxury.

    1. Couple of things you may not realize: Is that African maise farmers always saved their seed from each years crop to replant again the next year. Then Monsanto and Bill Gates talked the farmers into planting GMO seeds, and when the farmers planted their saved seeds the next year nothing grew. And they make so little profit on their harvest that they had no money to buy more seed from Monsanto. Monsanto is the reason why the Africans have no crops, and why millions and millions of Africans are starving.
      Second point is that the eatable part of corn/maise only arrives on the plants after the wind-blown pollination process has finished. Therefor it is absolutely necessary to plow the GMO crop under before pollination begins otherwise all the good crops of all the other farmers around that area will also have all their crops contaminated as well by wind-blown cross-pollination from the GMO plants.
      Personally I would not be able to sleep untill I knew that every last GMO plant had been destroyed.

    2. Most GMO crops are designed not for general consumption; as a crop inedible and only useful after being processed into ethanol or high fructose corn syrup. Of course those who are starving don’t care if the corn has no nutritional value and tastes like cardboard…they are starving.

    1. I agree with Rae as well.

      Anyway, about my previous post that said the following…:

      http://gnosticteachings.or​g/the-teachings-of-gnosis/​book-excerpts/717-cultivat​ed-fruit.html

      “It seems that cross-pollination is okay; but if even grafting is foolish, then genetically modifying plants in a laboratory is most likely thousands of times worse.
      Canned food is toxic too, whether it’s coated with plastic with BPA’s or not.”

      …I want to add that what is meant here, is that cross-pollination between GMO and non-GMO plants is always a bad thing.

      Meaning that cross-pollination between any NON-GMO plants is fine; but that all of the following are always harmful period: GMO’s, grafting, spraying of synthetic-chemical-pesticides, etc.

      1. GMOs and synthetic pesticides I can understand, as well as some methods of canning (after all, one polar expedition failed due to food stored in lead cans).

        However, I don’t buy into the dangers of grafting. Generally speaking, it can only happen between plants of closely related species, and the (root)stock serves mainly or wholly to control the growth of the stem (main plant), thus making it easier to harvest (it’s far easier to pick fruit from a 15′ tall tree than a 30′ tall tree!), and I’d assume that a molecular level analysis of fruit from grafted and ungrafted trees wouldn’t pick up on anything above and beyond natural variation.

        As for canning, it’s a process that’s been used for nearly a century now, presumably without significant impacts upon humans. When potentially harmful products are discovered in food containers, a combination of government and consumer pressure leads to containers being produced without the chemical (e.g. bisphenol-A). The nature of the food we buy means it is quite often enclosed in packaging (mainly as a means of protecting it during transit and storage) – and most people don’t have gardens big enough to feed themselves all year round without needing to venture to the shops.

        Therefore, as with everything else in life, compromises have to be reached. While I generally don’t eat canned food, milk is almost universally sold in plastic bottles, fruit juice within plastic-lined cardboard cartons, and fatty spreads in plastic containers (with ‘proper’ butter wrapped in a form of paper)

  9. Who wins in this situation? Not the farmers who lose not only their crop but also any chance of recourse against the distributor. Not the people who would have eaten either that crop or animals fed from it. Not the local businesses that will suffer because the farmers don’t have the money to patronize them.

    No one wins. Everyone loses.

    1. You are right. As soon as Monsanto has its finger in the pot everybody looses all the way down the line, weather they know it or not. Monsanto spreads like a cancer turning everybody into a looser.
      Cansanto

  10. It’s great to see Monsanto’s GMO Crops being burned, but sad to see the farmers hurt. How did the farmers get GMO seed without knowing it and without paying a royalty to Monsanto?

  11. Amazing!! Congrats Hungary!

    These are the same evil people who made agent orange for Vietnam – don’t google agent orange if you don’t want nightmares for the rest of your life.

    Monsanto should be burnt to the ground everywhere.

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