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- GM seed fiasco means farmers start to dig up crops
- 2000
- Advanta admits separation distances in UK far closer than Canada
- Advanta to pay up
- Britain's babies back baby food ban
- Buy it from farmers' markets
- Buy your festive feast from local farmers
- Cadbury's admits its chocolate contains lindane
- Call for new biotech commission to halt spread of GM seeds
- Children get raw deal from Government
- Euro MPs fail GM Test
- Farm scale trials must be called off
- First UK organic beer festival held in Birmingham
- FOE responds to Prince Philip's confidence about GM foods
- Food Standards Agency could do better
- GM farm scale trial is useless
- GM farm scale trials threaten UK honey
- GM farmers pull out of trials
- GM scientist deserves sack says Friends of the Earth
- GM trials are a farce
- Government gambling with countryside
- Government in chaos over GM seeds
- Government in shambles over GM mistake
- Government prepares to decide commercial approval for GM crops before trial ends
- Government proposes to trash GM trials
- Hormone disrupting chemicals found in baby food
- Iceland to stock organic food at non-organic prices
- Illegal GM ingredients found in supermarkets
- Lindane is banned - nearly
- More GM crops set for Wales
- MPs debate new law on GM liability
- New fears over impact of GM crops on birdlife
- Public wants pesticides banned from supermarket food
- Scientists slam GM research
- Supermarket Real Food sham
- Top insurer says no to GM pollution cover
- Wales can ban GM
- Welsh agriculture secretary bottles out of Assembly decision on GM
- Aventis criticised by Government barrister
- Baby Blair greeted with hamper of Real Food
- Biosafety Protocol Agreed
- Biotech giant clams up at GM Seed List Hearing
- Call for pesticide tax
- Church advisers say no to GM crop trials
- Diners still worry about GM food
- FOE slams Krebs over organic food
- GM contamination inevitable admits Meacher
- GM food scare hits US taco lovers
- GM seed fiasco means farmers start to dig up crops
- GM-free diet for Iceland livestock
- Government GM policy in tatters
- Government set to give go-ahead to commercial licensing
- Hold on the milk says top scientist
- Kiss of death for GM seed
- Pesticides level rise in fruit AND veg
- Promising green speech from Blair?
- Shock admission that GM crops are already growing in the UK
- Supermarkets back organic farming bill
GM seed fiasco means farmers start to dig up crops23 May 2000
A Suffolk farmer affected by the Advanta Seeds GM contamination has decided to dig up his fields. The affected spring oilseed rape (Hyola 38) was contaminated with up to 1 per cent of genetically modified (GM) seed.
Major British supermarkets have said that they will refuse to buy the crops from farmers who planted the contaminated seed, leaving them facing considerable financial loss. It is believed that Advanta have instructed farmers not to dig up the crop in the UK.
The British Government has done nothing to prevent the affected crop from being grown, although in Sweden the Government is moving to ensure that it is removed from the ground as soon as possible.
Farmers who remove the contaminated crop from the ground and resow oilseed rape before the end of May would still be eligible for EU subsidy (Arable Area Payments).
"It is a disgrace that farmers have been put in this position. The Government has a duty to see that all the contaminated crops are removed from the ground at once, and that farmers are properly compensated for any losses they suffer," said Friends of the Earth Real Food Campaigner Pete Riley.
"We have repeatedly warned the Government that the issue of liability for damage caused by GM crops is completely unresolved. Incidents like this are bound to happen again if the headlong rush to commercial development of GM crops continues," he adds.
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