MPs' GM report strengthens Carwyn's arm says FOE Cymru

A report from a powerful committee of MPs slamming Government plans to allow GM crops to be commercially grown gives strong support for Welsh Environment Minister Carwyn Jones Friends of the Earth Cymru said today. The UK Government is signaling that it wishes to give GM crops the go-ahead in the face of Assembly concerns.

The group is calling on Carwyn Jones to stand up for the Assembly's restrictive policy on GM and to support the farmers and consumers of Wales who have rejected the crops. Media reports have suggested that Mr Jones is being subjected to immense pressure from Whitehall to support commercialisation of the first GM seed in the UK - the herbicide tolerant maize ChardonLL. The seed cannot be added to the UK National Seed List, the list of approved varieties, without agreement from the Welsh Assembly.

Friends of the Earth Cymru today sent Assembly Members a legal briefing laying out the grounds by which the Assembly can resist the commercialisation of ChardonLL [2].

The MPs' report, from the Environmental Audit Committee reviews the official four-year-long trials of GM crops, and says that commercial growing of the GM maize should not go ahead. The trials, which ended last year, compared the wildlife impacts of the herbicide regimes used on conventional and GM crops. But the results of the trials - which concluded that growing GM maize was less damaging than its conventional counterpart - are now widely regarded as being fatally flawed. The weedkiller, atrazine, used on conventional maize crops in the trials will be banned by the EU from 2006. There are no data comparing the wildlife impacts of growing GM maize with conventional maize sprayed with a replacement herbicide for atrazine.

The Environment Audit Committee describes the scope of the Farm Scale Evaluations (FSE) as "very narrow" and says the results "cannot be regarded as adequate grounds for a decision to be taken in favour of commercialisation." It also says:

"We are concerned that the GMHT forage maize trials were based on an unsatisfactory, indeed invalid, comparison. It is vital that the Government permit no commercial planting of GMHT forage maize until that crop is thoroughly re-trialled against a non-GM equivalent grown without the use of atrazine." (Paragraph 14).

The committee also "insist that the issue of liability be settled before any GM crops are allowed to be commercially grown in the UK" [3] "through primary legislation" ensuring that "liability should lie with the industry and not with farmers" The report adds "it will be wrong for the Government to allow farmers to be used as a firewall for industry".

Friends of the Earth's Director Tony Juniper said:

"This damming report must surely force the UK Government to reconsider its plans to allow GM maize to be commercially grown. Even Tony Blair must concede that it raises many valid scientific concerns and further confirms that the GM crop trials were fatally flawed and cannot be used to justify GM crops being given the green light, no matter how carefully the Government phrases its announcements".

Friends of the Earth Cymru Director Julian Rosser added,

"This report should strengthen Carwyn's arm in negotiations with Whitehall . It would be irresponsible for ChardonLL to be commercialised when there remain so many grave doubts about its safety and value for agriculture."

"I am sure that the Assembly Government will be emboldened by yet further support for its position. It is unthinkable that Carwyn Jones could agree to the listing of ChardonLL after this report. The legal briefing we have sent today to Assembly Members shows very clearly that the Assembly has the power to stop the listing of ChardonLL. It must use that power now."

Notes

[1]. Under the terms of the Standing Order No. 152A the Environmental Audit Committee is to "consider to what extent the policies and programmes of government departments and non-departmental public bodies contribute to environmental protection and sustainable development: to audit their performance against such targets as may be set for them by her Majesty's Ministers; and to report thereon to the House." The Committee was set up on 16 July 2001 .

[2]. www.foe.co.uk/cymru/english/press_releases/ ¬
2004/carwyn_jones_gm.html

[3]. Greg Barker MP, a member of the EAC, has introduced a Private Members Bill which would tackle the issue of liability and GM crops. The GM Bill would introduce separation distances and times between GM crops and other crops and a strict liability code and liability funds to ensure that if organic or conventional crops are contaminated by GMOs, those affected can be reimbursed for their losses by the biotech industry. It will be debated in Parliament on 26th March 2004 .