ROME -- The north Italian city of Genoa has banned genetically modified crops on the eve of an international biotech conference there, a spokesman said on Tuesday.
Mauro Cordo said the Genoa town council voted overwhelmingly on Monday to ban the cultivation and marketing of GM crops on land under its jurisdiction, citing concerns over possible health and environmental risks.
Cordo said that twenty-eight on the council voted for, five abstained, and none voted against. "The vote was backed by the center-left majority and the (far right) National Alliance," he said.
The vote preceded a three-day conference starting on Wednesday, organized by Genoa Trade Fair. The conference was expected to draw speakers from life sciences companies to discuss plant biotechnology, and agricultural and health care issues.
Environmentalist groups, including Greenpeace, are planning protests against GM crops in Genoa this week, and 1997 Nobel literature prize winner Dario Fo is expected to join them.
Italy's Farm Minister Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio, a member of the Greens who took office last month in the center-left government of Prime Minister Giuliano Amato, has said he opposes GM foods and experimentation with GM crops in open fields.
Last week he ordered anti-fraud checks to make sure farmers were not unwittingly buying transgenic seeds after a company imported rapeseed contaminated with GM material to Europe.
Pecoraro Scanio was not expected to attend the Genoa biotech conference, an agriculture ministry spokeswoman said.
The Italian regions of Marche, Tuscany, and Lazio have recently banned cultivation of GM crops.
