Farm scale trials must be called off8 June 2000
Friends of the Earth is calling for the current round of GM Farm Scale trials to be abandoned following the Government's decision to review the separation distances between GM and non-GM crops. Letters about the review - which is due to be completed by 1 August - are due to be sent out by MAFF today.
Recent events have raised serious concerns about the adequacy of separation distances around the GM farm scale trials which are as little as 50 metres. During the recent fiasco over the accidental planting of GM contaminated oil seed rape, it was claimed that the contamination in Canada came from a GM crop at least 800 metres away (the legal minimum distance in Canada).
"This long-overdue review of separation distances between GM and non-GM shows that even the Government now believes that the current guidelines are inadequate. The Government must now act to protect the livelihoods of farmers and beekeepers neighbouring GM crops by abandoning the farm scale trials before they reach flowering," said Friends of the Earth Real Food Campaigner Adrian Bebb. "Failure to act is unacceptable - the biotech industry has been gambling with the countryside for far too long."
Friends of the Earth is not a lone voice. Parishioners near a farm scale trial near Wivenhoe, Essex have voted overwhelmingly against the GM trial continuing. 88 per cent voted against the trial with a 38 per cent turnout.
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