Those who say no to GMOs are often portrayed as extremists opposed on principle to any innovation, as obscurantists who reject scientific progress and technology. This is not true.

Before deciding to oppose GMOs, we at LifeGate, for example, did our research and went looking for all those independent studies that have rarely been brought to the attention of the general public. Studies that make many aspects of GMOs — relating to human health, environmental protection and the ethics linking wealthy countries to poorer ones — increasingly controversial.

That is why we at LifeGate have also decided to support the "free from GMOs" coalition (ranging from Acli to WWF, from Aiab to Slow Food, from Coldiretti to Libera) in its petition drive for genuine agriculture and food that respects nature and is free from genetically modified organisms.

We say no firmly to genetically manipulated crops for one very simple reason: contamination from GMOs is certain and irreversible.

Modifying the genes of a plant and growing it in open fields is not, in fact, an experiment that can be stopped without consequences if — perhaps ten years down the line — we discover undesirable effects. By then the plants will have reproduced, pollen and seeds will have spread everywhere, carried by bees, by the wind or by lorries transporting the harvest, contaminating hundreds of fields and cancelling other farmers' right to cultivate using different methods, because everything would be irreparably contaminated.

Supporters argue that there is no proof that GMOs are harmful, yet numerous independent studies demonstrate dramatically otherwise. And yet, accompanying the authorisation applications submitted by the multinationals that produce GMOs, there continue to be only studies commissioned and funded by those very same multinationals.

LifeGate has always stood on the side of organic farming. On this topic we have a dedicated section under the Food area of the lifegate.it portal, and online there are approximately
250 articles, featuring contributions from scientists and politicians (ranging from Capanna to Alemanno).

Marco and Simona Roveda, the founders of LifeGate, were pioneers in the organic world more than twenty years ago; it is therefore natural that in this field we have a clear sense of which side to stand on.

Online at the lifegate.it portal there is a link where you can cast your vote. The question is: "do you want agri-food, food and its integrity to be at the heart of development — shaped by people and territories, health and quality, sustainable and innovative, founded on biodiversity, free from GMOs?".