Call for new biotech commission to halt spread of GM seeds

5 June 2000

Friends of the Earth has called for the newly created Agriculture and Environment Biotechnology Advisory Commission [AEBC], which will advise the Government on biotechnology, to back abandonment of GM farm scale trials, and halt commercial approval of GM seeds. FOE wants the new Commission to put the interests of the public and countryside ahead of the biotech industry.

The Government is allowing GM farm scale trials to take place despite concerns about the impact that they may have on the environment and peoples' livelihoods.

"The public is rightly concerned about the effects that GM crops may have on the environment and about the way the Government has handled the issue. If this new Committee is to be more than just another PR exercise it needs to grasp the nettle," said Friends of the Earth Real Food Campaigner Adrian Bebb. "Public confidence can only be restored if the rush to commercial development is halted to allow a proper debate to take place. The Commission should call on the Government to abandon its GM trials programme and halt the commercial approval of GM seed."

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