ItalyOrganisations and institutions
Acu, Agorà, AltragricolturaBio, ASCI, Assobio, Associazione rurale italiana, AIAB, Associazione per l’agricoltura biodinamica, Centro internazionale Crocevia, Coltivare Condividendo, Coordinamento ZeroOgm, Deafal, Demeter Italia, Equivita, European Consumers, Fairwatch, Federazione Nazionale Pro Natura, Federbio, FIRAB, Fondazione Seminare il Futuro, Greenpeace, ISDE, Legambiente, Lipu, Navdanya International, RIES – Rete Italiana Economia Solidale, Ress, Seedvicious, Slow food Italia, Associazione Terra!, Terra Nuova, Transform!, USB, Verdi Ambiente e Società, WWF
For the sake of clarity: at the moment, all ‘GMO free’ legislation remains in force in Italy, the only exception being a recent decree allowing NGT products to be tested in the field.
(Updated by CROCEVIA INTERNATIONAL CENTER 2023 Dec)
Official and institutional links
Ministry for the Environment and Territory
The campaign for “New GMO-Free Municipalities”
Centro Internazionale Crocevia works in support of smallholder movements all over the world, and serves as the Secretariat of the International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty. We work on agricultural biodiversity policies at international and national level.
In Italy and the EU, we’re committed to support the campaign against the deregulation of new GMOs. Since it’s complicated to push our national government to take a stand against new GMOs – NGTs, and given that in our country there’s little media attention and no public debate on the topic, we decided to run a grassroots campaign to bring the issue at the local level. That’s why we wrote a book on old and new GMOs, and use it as a tool for our campaign.
Since May 2024, we participated in more than 40 local events to raise people and movements’ awareness on the risk related to a possible deregulation of new GMOs. Many people started asking what they could do at the local level, so in October we decided to create a tool they can use to engage local authorities. We worked with Associazione Rurale Italiana (ARI), the Italian branch of the European Coordination Via Campesina (ECVC), to put together a draft resolution to be shared with activists from many local groups we were meeting in our trips through the country.
Our resolution asks local authorities to ban NGT field trials on their territory, or to publish the exact location where NGTs will be cultivated or tested. On top of that, the text requests them to ban NGTs from school canteens and from all public procurements. Finally, we ask Municipalities to create an observatory on NGTs to implement these provisions, and to put a sign at the border of their territory saying ‘Municipality free of new GMOs’.
The campaign for “New GMO-Free Municipalities” started at the end of October 2024. One month later (27 November) the first resolution was approved in Poppi (a small municipality in the Toscana Region, central Italy). Then, in the following 3 months, we got 3 other resolutions approved in the Calabria Region (southern Italy). Local groups we engaged earlier in the year, were key to get these resolutions passed. To date, other 9 resolution have been presented to local authorities in different cities and villages.
We know that much more needs to be done to create a strong movement, and this will be our goal for 2025. Our strategy to expand the area, is to convince small towns or villages first, then to approach bigger towns and regional capital cities. We hope this campaign will be carried out also in other countries, and we look forward to meeting with the organizations that decide to start this process, to explore how to strengthen their respective action.
(Information provived by CENTRO INTERNAZIONALE CROCEVIA, 2025 March)
