A gift to Sarkozy - France and GMOs

No, I'm not a Greenpeace activist, but I do like their smart, well-thought, human and original actions, and they're those who make me smile the most lately.
So what did they do to make me smile this time? Well, they made a demonstration in front of Nicolas Sarkozy's campaign offices in Paris. As many know, he's the most privileged candidate to the French presidential election, and also a quite dangerous man who already did quite his share in sinking people living in his country. As it turns out in this case, he's also the sole candidate that didn't take any position in favour of a moratorium on GMOs. The only one, yes. All this despite a way of speaking misleading people into thinking he would not really trust GMOs. All talk, no actions, so Greenpeace came to confront him in that and repeat a demand made by many associations that he takes a position in the matter.
On March 16, disguised as street cleaners and with the appropriate van, they delivered in front of his campaign offices several tons of genetically modified corn (in a "return to sender" mind frame). This was filmed and can be seen here, ending with an explanation at the end in both English (if you don't mind the accent!) and French.

For those interested in knowing the actual GMO related positions and propositions of all the candidates to the French elections, you can check it on this site – only in French.

As for the other French demonstrations: there's a hunger strike currently going on (started on March 14). This as well as documents about GMOs and the demonstrator's position can be seen on this French website, where a petition (fr) demanding a moratorium can also be signed.

All this could make people think, again, that French people really are the most aggressive in Europe against GMOs, but saying this would only relay a manipulation often made in the media, mostly French. Yes, it does seem they are the most aggressive, but a fact important to know in this domain is that in Europe their country is the one with the least legislative precautions against GMOs and was the first to start GMO cultures, in 1998.
And there's also this nagging detail of Europe Union's request for a fine on France for breaches of the environmental law in that matter: despite several written warnings, last December France had still not adopted the EU Directive on deliberate release of genetically modified organisms into the environment – a Directive of 2001 that was to be adopted by all EU countries by 2003... All the explanations here in English.

Photo: © Greenpeace