Localization of fields with GMO

Warszawa,  October 31, 2013

From:
Minister of Agricuture
and Rural Development
HORzg-077-193/2013

To:
Ms Anna Szmelcer, President, „GMO-Free Poland” Association
Ul.Jagiellońska 21, 44-100 Gliwice

Dear Ms President,
Referring to „GMO-Free Poland” Association’s letter concerning your notification of the localization of fields with GMO crops, based on the reports from the media on the subject, we hereby inform you what follows.
The fact of alleged contamination of corn crops with GM corn varieties was reported to the media in the interviews by the Chief Inspector of Plant and Seeed Protection, while summing up the results of inspection as concerns the ban on the use of such seeds in 2013 growing season. However, he made it clear that each suspected case needs to be confirmed by more detailed laboratory tests, in order to avoid relying only on screening test made with the samples taken from a given field.

This information was definitively stated at the press conference of the Minister of Agricuture and Rural Development and the Chief Inspector of Plant and Seeed Protection during the POLAGRA Fair in October this year.
The laboratory tests of the questioned cases confirmed that in one place in the Silesian Voivodship, such a case was identified on a plantation of 1.8 hectares where Codibag corn variety was sown, which fulfilled all the requirements as defined by seed regulations. Codibag corn variety is registered in the Community Catalogue (CCA) as a conventional variety (not including genetical modification) and in the State Register of Slovakia.
Laboratory tests showed the existence of MON810 modification at the level of 1,24%. According to the technical protocol issued by the Community Plant Variety Office ( CPVO) CPVO-TP/002/3 of March 11, 2010 (Protocol for distinctness, uniformity and stability tests Zea mays L. Maize), to estimate the equalization of inbred lines and one-line crossbreds the used standard is 3%. It means that a corn variety is registered in the State Register and by this fact also in the Community Catalogue (CCA) as meeting the requirements of  distinctiveness, equalization and durability, when it contains up to 3% of untypical plants, being a result of nature’s changeability. Therefore, a 3% admixture of different varieties may be recognized as  acceptable. As the laboratory tests revealed the presence of MON810 modification at the level of 1,24%, on the basis of the mentioned CPVO document, the admixture found does not provide grounds for claiming that any of corn varieties listed by the Council of Ministers’s regulation as prohibited was applied by the farmer on purpose.
After receiving the laboratory test results, the farmer collected the whole unripe corn from the field and ensileged it to be used as fodder in his own farm. The farm was monitored in this respect by the State Inspection for Plant and Seeed Protection officials. Additionally, basing on the information from the State Inspection for Plant and Seeed Protection, we can assure that the field from which test samples were taken did not neighbour on any other corn field.

For the Minister of Agricuture
and Rural Development    
signed by: Undersecretary of State Krystyna Garbiel