Cautious Welcome for New GM Advisers

18 June 1999

Friends of the Earth gave a cautious welcome to the new membership of ACRE (Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment), the Government's advisory committee on genetically modified (GM) crops. FOE is now calling on the Government to ask ACRE for an urgent review of all existing GMO marketing and test consents.

In July 1998 FOE revealed that most of the 13 members of the ACRE panel had close links to the biotechnology industry, and that the panel had never recommended refusal of an application. Environment Minister Michael Meacher subsequently announced that the new ACRE would represent some of the broader concerns that many people had about the new technology.

Pete Riley, FOE's Senior Food Campaigner, said: "The new membership of ACRE is certainly an improvement on the last one, and will hopefully reflect the concerns that most people in the country have about GM crops. However, the new ACRE will be judged on its actions. Its first step must be an urgent review of all the consents for the existing trial sites. It is clear that many of these pose a threat to conventional and organic farming and should be scrapped."

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