Switzerland votes for a five-year long ban on GMOs

The Swiss have voted in favour of a five-year ban on the farming of genetically modified crops in Switzerland.

55.7% of the Swiss approved a five-year long moratorium on banning the use of GMOs in farming via referendum in all 26 cantons on 27 November. Swiss farmers will now be banned from using GMOs in their crops or in their animal fodder until 2010. 

This result reflects the widespread scepticism in Switzerland about the use of GMOs in farming. The result has been welcomed by environmentalists in the Swiss government or NGOs and by farmers thinking that the use of GMOs undermines the organic production. 

The EU has strict regulations concerning GMOs to ensure the safety of human health, animal health and the environment but allows under certain circumstances the import of some GMOs, such as the recent example of 1507 maize. 

However, the Swiss biotechnology industry and science experts fear that this decision will hamper scientific research on GMOs in the country as, under those new circumstances, research may well develop abroad rather than in Switzerland. 

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