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Carwyn Jones must put his foot down on GM

Friends of the Earth Cymru has said that the results of the GM Farm Scale trials, published today, show that the Welsh Assembly has been correct to take a restrictive stance on GM crop planting in Wales [1]. The group says that the results of the experiments do nothing to reassure the public that any GM crop is safe for cultivation or use in the UK. Friends of the Earth Cymru has repeated its call for the Assembly Government to block commercialisation of GM in the UK.

The trial results have reported damage to biodiversity in plots planted with GM beet and oilseed rape. Although the results suggest a benefit to wildlife in those sites planted with GM maize, Friends of the Earth Cymru has warned that the evidence should not reassure the public of the benefits of that crop for several reasons:

• Many of the trials compared the performance of the GM maize plots with conventional maize plots which had been treated with atrazine - a highly toxic chemical which is due to be phased out across Europe. This renders much of the experiment invalid for determining future impacts of GM cultivation. It also simply compared one unsustainable system with another.
• There is a strong suspicion that the maize trials were not conducted under conditions that would be repeated in actual commercial farming conditions. For example, spraying of the herbicide was left unusually late in the growing season which could have affected the yield.
• The maize trials did not consider the impacts of the GM cultivation on surrounding farmers' crops, on animal or human health, or on crucial soil micro-organism communities.

The group claims that these problems mean that there is no extra evidence which would support the commercialisation of the GM maize ChardonLL in the UK - a decision which must be taken jointly by Ministers across England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. That decision is expected in the New Year [2].

Julian Rosser, Director of Friends of the Earth Cymru commented,

"The Assembly Government has been awaiting the results of these trials before it makes a decision on whether to endorse the commercialisation of the GM maize ChardonLL in the UK. There is absolutely nothing in these results to reassure us that the cultivation and use of ChardonLL would be safe for our heath, environment or agriculture.

"The results for the other crops are even more worrying. Restricted though these experiments were, they still managed to raise concerns about the impacts of these crops on wildlife. It is time for the Assembly to accept that there is not sufficient evidence that any GM crop is safe for cultivation in Wales. Until that evidence is produced, Carwyn Jones should put his foot down and make it clear that he will prevent any GM planting in Wales. He should also join with allies across Europe to stand up to the US Government and its corporate paymasters."

Notes

[1] No trials of GM beet or oilseed rape, which have been judged to cause harm to biodiversity, took place in Wales because of the Assembly's policy, drafted by Friends of the Earth Cymru, of restricting the planting of "experimental" GM crops. See: www.foe.co.uk/cymru/english/press_releases/2000/gm_free_wales_green_light.html

Two trials of GM maize, ChardonLL, took place in Flintshire in 2000 and 2001 against a background of mounting controversy and complaints from the Assembly Government. Again, it was Friends of the Earth Cymru who revealed in 2000 that the trial site was in Flintshire, not in Cheshire as the UK Government had announced. See: www.foe.co.uk/cymru/english/press_releases/2000/gmtrial_wales_not_england.html

[2] See: www.foe.co.uk/cymru/english/press_releases/2003/pants_to_gm.html