At its 2005 annual general meeting, the South Iceland Regional Farmers´ Union passed a resolution on GM agriculture, calling for utmost precaution in the handling of this issue and against any further licences being granted to such activity until independent research has been conducted on benefits and problems.

The resolution stresses the need for a general debate on the growing of GM crops and its impact on the image and purity of Icelandic agricultural products. It also calls for an independent study of the risks associated with GM pharmaceutical crop production for the environment, human health and non-GM agriculture. See resolution (in Icelandic) here.

The South Iceland Regional Farmers´ Union is the largest regional farmers´ association in Iceland, covering the biggest and most productive farmland with considerable dairy, grain and vegetable production, as well as some sheep farming. In the middle of the region is Gunnarsholt, the venue of the controversial GM pharmaceutical barley crop trial of the biotech company ORF. See also recent article on ORF´s plans for extended crop trials.