Chepstow Meeting on a GM-Free Welsh Environment

There will be a public meeting in Chepstow on Thursday 3rd January as part of Friends of the Earth (FOE) Cymru's GM-Free Welsh Environment Campaign. The meeting will begin at 7:30pm in Chepstow Drill Hall on Lower Church Street. Members of the public are encouraged to attend and ask their representatives about the impact that growing these crops may have on the Welsh countryside.

The meeting will be addressed by :
Raoul Bhambral, FOE Cymru's GM Campaigner,
David Davies (Conservative), Assembly Member for Monmouth,
Jocelyn Davies (Plaid Cymru), AM for South Wales East,
Mike German (Liberal Democrat), AM for South Wales East, and
Huw Edwards (Labour), MP for Monmouth.

Raoul Bhambral, GM Campaigner for FOE Cymru commented:

"We are calling on the National Assembly for Wales to prevent the planting of any genetically modified crops in the Welsh environment. At present there is no conclusive evidence about the safety of these crops for human health or the environment. We shouldn't be experimenting with our wildlife and health until the public can be sure that GM crops are safe."

"Chepstow is a key part of Wales when it comes to GM crops, as a local farmer intended to plant GM crops last year. Fortunately, he withdrew his permission [1]. FOE Cymru hopes that he will reconsider planting this year, especially as we believe the Government cannot be trusted to keep it's word when it comes to GM crops."

"The farm scale trials are not 'sound science' as the Government likes to call them, they are a way of sneaking GM crops through the backdoor. We have been promised that commercial growing of GM seeds would not begin until the results of the trials were analysed [2], but now it seems that several varieties of GM seeds may be commercially approved in 2000. This is well before the trials end."

"Our legal opinion says the Assembly has the power to prevent these crops being planted in the Welsh environment. FOE Cymru calls on it to act independently of Westminster and to take open and honest action to protect the Welsh environment from this potentially hazardous technology."

Notes

1 Mr. Tim Buckland, of Trelleck Grange, near Monmouth withdrew his permission for the National Institute of Agricultural Botany to include their trials of GM rape with the other oilseed rape on his farm. He said, "I do agree with the opinion of Huw Edwards MP, that the companies involved have failed to properly inform local people of the reasons for the trials and the precautions that are taken. For this reason ... I withdrew my consent for the trials for this year but intend to proceed with them in the year 2000." Monmouthshire Beacon, 8th April 1999.

2 Environment Minister Michael Meacher told a House of Lords Committee in October 1998 that "the results of these farm-scale evaluations will be carefully assessed before we move further. I feel it is extremely important that we do not travel further down the road to commercialisation of GM crops before we have this information. If, during this process, we do find evidence of harm, then we can take appropriate action". House of Lords Select Committee on European Affairs Vol 2 Evidence from Michael Meacher, column 603-635.