Government in a GM Spin21 May 1999
Friends of the Earth has slammed the Government's announcement on genetically modified (GM) food policy as "miserably inadequate".
The Government has published a paper by the Chief Medical Officer and Chief Scientific Adviser and claims that there is no evidence of adverse effects from GM food. But a Cabinet Office letter leaked to Friends of the Earth on Wednesday this week shows that the paper had been rewritten on the instructions of Ministers on the Biotechnology Presentation Group, which exists to spin GM policy to the public. FOE is demanding that the Government publish the original version, which concluded that not enough research had been done either on the health or environmental effects of GM food and crops.
The announcement also allows for creeping commercialisation. Last October Environment Minister Michael Meacher and Agriculture Minister Jeff Rooker said in a joint statement that "there will be no commercial growing of any GM crops for at least a year... With regard to insect resistant GM crops.. there will be no planting of any such crops for at least three years." But FOE today revealed that biotech giant AgrEvo has been granted a marketing consent for GM fodder maize - and published details of the four farms where the maize is now being grown.
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