GM debate descends into farce29 November 2002
Government policy on GM crops descended into farce again after the Government confirmed that a major scientific review of the new technology - which will help determine whether to allow GM crops to be commercially grown - will end before the GM farm scale trials have finished.
The short deadline imposed by Environment Secretary, Margaret Beckett, further undermines the Government's Public Debate on GM issues which is due to begin early next year. The debate, which has three strands (a public debate, the scientific review and a costs and benefits study of GM crops), has already been described by an unnamed Government Minister as just a "PR offensive".
The GM farm scale trials started in 1999 "to study the effect, if any, that the management practices associated with Genetically Modified Herbicide Tolerant (GMHT) crops might have on farmland wildlife, when compared with weed control used with non-GM crops." However, the trials were criticized because of the threat they posed to neighbouring crops and honey, and because they would only provide a very limited view of the potential long-term environmental impacts of this new technology.
Friends of the Earth's GM Campaigner Pete Riley said: "The Government's Public Debate on GM issues is descending into farce. The Government told the public that the farm scale trials would provide important information on the safety of GM crops - but Mrs Beckett's ludicrously short timetable for completing the scientific review means that those results will now be excluded. Many people already think that the GM debate is simply a PR exercise. Unless the debate is extended beyond the June deadline this suspicion will only grow."
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