London (December 27th, 2005) – Press reports about the recent Swiss referendum noted that voters had given their approval to a five-year ban on genetically modified organisms in Swiss agriculture but were not clear in declaring exactly what it was that had been rejected.

The relevant text (translated from original German) reads:

The temporary provisions of the Federal Constitution of April 18, 1999 are [hereby] amended as follows:
Art. 197, Sec. 2 (new)

2. Temporary measures of Article 120 (Genetic Engineering in the non-human contexts)
For a period of five years from the enactment of this constitutional provision, Swiss agriculture shall remain free of genetic engineering. In particular, the following may not be bought, sold, bartered, exchanged, offered or exposed for sale:

1. genetically modified plants, plant parts or seeds for planting, which are intended for unconfined use in agriculture, horticulture or forestry;

2. genetically modified animals, which are intended for use in the production of food and other agricultural products.

Which raises some interesting points:

(a) The moratorium does not prohibit movement of genetic material between laboratories, nor contained trials of GM plants or animals. Nor does it ban the import of GM maize, soy or oilseed rape. Moreover, it does not block the use of GM yeast in bread production (yeast is not a plant or an animal), and foods are anyway not covered. Thus, the sale of cheese made with GM enzymes is not prevented.

(b) While the vote prohibits the use of GM cows for milk production, it appears not to affect cheese made from milk produced by such cows if it were imported. Whether or not cloned cows would be "genetically modified" within the meaning of the moratorium is open to debate (the fact that they are not GM will not stop people from debating it), but, in any case, only Swiss cloned cows would be affected. Actual GM animals, like pet GM zebra fish, may be sold if there is no intention of eating them. But if you were to change your mind later and decide to consume the pet zebra fish anyhow, that's OK.

It would indeed be permitted to sell GM pet glow-in-the-dark chickens so long as they were not marketed "edible pets".

Source:

Eidgenössische Volksinitiative 'für Lebensmittel aus gentechnikfreier Landwirtschaft'. Confoederatio Helvetica Die Bunderbehörden der Schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft (Eidgenössische Volksinitiative 'für Lebensmittel aus gentechnikfreier Landwirtschaft')

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