LAGOS IS due to become the first council in the Algarve to be declared free from genetically modified crops, having sent its application on Monday, August 20, to the Direcção-regional de Agricultura, the regional governing body for agriculture.
Castelão Rodrigues, director of the Direcção-regional de Agricultura, has confirmed that the documents have been received and the process of declaring Lagos as a GM free council will be very quick.
A continuous area of at least 3,000 hectares has to be assigned for it to be declared GM free for a maximum period of five years. After this time, the status can either be renewed or cancelled.
GM free status is given when there is at least a two-third majority in favour at the Assembleia Municipal, municipal assembly, and a total agreement from all the farmers concerned. If any farmer is opposed to the proposal however, the application will not be completed.
After all of the farmers had been notified and none protested against the idea, it was decided that the area to apply for GM free status would be of 214 square kilometres.
Lagos had already been declared as a GM free zone in 2004 by the Partido Social Democrata (PSD), social democratic party, lead by Macário Correia, however, according to Castelão Rodrigues, “this was only a political statement”.
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