by RFI
Activists from Greenpeace France placed giant ears of maize at the foot of the Eiffel Tower on Wednesday, symbolically transforming the park beneath it, the Champ de Mars, into a genetically modified maize field.
Greenpeace wheeled out the mhe models, made from canvas, to protest at a probable European Union decision to authorise of new genetically modified sweetcorn, known as TC1507.
Greenpeace has long been campaining to ban GMO cultivation in France and has reinforced its actions since the countrywide ban on GMO maize was annulled by France’s top court last summer.
The French agriculture ministry announced last week that a new law to restore the ban on genetically modified maize in France could be voted by the Senate as soon as 17 February, just in time to prevent sowings of GM crops this spring.
Nineteen countries, including France, oppose the legalisation of TC1507.
