The Clean Food Movement, which is made up of 21 NGOs, today requested that Prime Minister Joseph Muscat declare Malta a GMO free zone.

The Movement is also requesting the newly elected MEPs to encourage the rest of the European Parliament to do the same in Europe.

During a protest held in Valletta, the Clean Food Movement said that to this very day, Malta lacks an accredited laboratory to carry out tests on food for chemical residues and GMOs that can be presented as evidence in Court.

The Naxxar local council is planning to prohibit the use of herbicides to control weeds after a motion was presented to the council calling for its ban, while it also intends issuing a call for tender for bidders willing to abide by the council’s decision and use alternative methods to kill weeds, this newspaper has learnt. At the time, this newspaper had learnt that one of the precautionary measures displayed on the label of the glyphosate-based weed killer used across the world, Roundup, recommends that the product is only used in fine weather and in temperatures not exceeding 25°Celsius. This argument had also been supported by the environment ministry.