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- Aventis criticised by Government barrister
- 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
Aventis criticised by Government barrister5 October 2000
GM seed company Aventis was given a sharp warning that its application to have the GM maize Chardon LL added to the National Seed List was likely to fail if it continued to refuse to give evidence at a public hearing into the proposal.
Alun Alesbury, the senior barrister chairing the public hearing told Aventis' legal team that he had now had time to think about the, "situation produced by Aventis' double announcement," that they wouldn't supply witnesses to support the application or participate in the cross-examination of witnesses.
Alesbury said: "The Friends of the Earth representation contains a considerable number of questions in relation to the soundness of any potential decision to add Chardon LL to the national list, which as a straightforward matter of fact are in no way at all answered in the Aventis written representations."
He continued: "Unless Ministers are persuaded that all points are irrelevant, how can they [Aventis] conceive that Ministers can make a decision favourable to their application".
"Aventis has treated this hearing with cynical disdain. If it refuses to take a proper part it must take the consequences. It must now change its stance or withdraw its application for listing," said Friends of the Earth Legal Advisor, Peter Roderick. "Aventis' behaviour at these vital hearings is a perfect example of how the biotech companies have behaved throughout the GM debate. They claim that their opponents are irrational. Yet when given the chance to defend their position in public, they show themselves arrogant, secretive, contemptuous of rational argument, and uninterested in public opinion."
Transcripts of the hearing can be found at: www.maff.gov.uk/planth/pvs/chardon/index.htm
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