Highlights

• Glyphosate exposure greatly impaired tomato's growth and development.

• Increased doses of glyphosate led to oxidative stress, especially in roots.

• Proline, ascorbate and glutathione levels were changed upon glyphosate exposure.

• Glyphosate stimulated the response of the enzymatic AOX system in a dose-dependent manner.

• Soil contamination by glyphosate can pose a serious threat to non-target plants.

Tests carried out by the Portuguese No GMO Coalition in cooperation with the Detox Project (detoxproject.org) revealed staggering levels of glyphosate more commonly known as Roundup, the most used synthetic chemical pesticide in Portuguese agriculture – and, up to now, the most neglected. It has been over ten years since any official testing for the presence

of glyphosate in food, soil, water, air or people was conducted in the country.

The growing of genetically modified corn in Portugal increased by 59 percent last year, being planted in 7,724 hectares of fields, compared to the 4,900 hectares planted in 2010, a study by the Ministry of Agriculture has revealed. The Alentejo region has seen the greatest increase in GM crops, which rose by 90 percent compared to 2010. In the Lisbon and Tagus Valley region, the increase in GM crop plantations was more than 51 percent. Last year also saw the first plantation of 2.5 hectares GM corn crops on the island of São Miguel in the Azores.

The regional government of the Azores archipelago on the mid-Atlantic ridge has declared it is a Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) free zone. As such, the region “prohibits the growing, sowing, planting nor breeding of any GMOs throughout its territory”. The regulation still permits exceptions for scientific research and technological development that are clearly in the public’s interest.

Pressure from the president of the European Commission has not succeeded in advancing the cause of transgenic crops. In spite of the power wielded by the executive organ of the European Union, the bloc’s member countries are gradually discontinuing the use of genetically modified seeds. [...] Portuguese biologist Margarida Silva, the national coordinator of Plataforma Transgénicos Fora, comprising 12 Portuguese non-governmental organisations working on agriculture and the environment and networking with likeminded NGOs in the EU, told [...] that ”the movement against transgenics is growing in civil society throughout Europe, and GM crops have already been banned in several countries.” ”There isn’t much that Europeans can do, but the power of numbers is still on our side, and we can use them to back Stavros Dimas,” she said.

This year the first GMO field ever has been planted in the Algarve Region in Portugal and now meets civil disobedience action. There has been strong opposition from civil society against the cultivation of GMOs in the Algarve. As a result the Algarve was the first GMO free zone in Portugal declared by the Junta Metropolitana do Algarve already in 2004. Municipalities passed additional motions rejecting GM crops on their territory.

The municipality of Loulé has declared itself GMO free and aims to join the network of European GMO free regions. The Metropolitan Committee of the Algarve (AMAL) intends to declare the whole region GMO free soon.