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- Government warns GM farmers over contamination threat
- 2003
- 10 reasons supermarket mergers are bad for consumers, farmers and small businesses
- Asda spinach over pesticide levels
- Asda/Wal-Mart exploits planning loophole
- Biting back at GM crops
- Blair sacks Meacher
- Committee Stage for Recycling Bill
- Cornwall goes GM-free
- Credibility of GM public debate hangs by a thread
- Cumbria goes GM-free
- Deplorable attack on GM scientific critic
- Devon votes to go GM-free
- Dorset demands caution over GM crops
- EU commission calls for GM contamination of organic food to be allowed
- EU meets US over GM trade war
- Farmers and consumers must have a say in Wal-Mart takeover
- Fat cats fight over Safeway, consumers and farmers are real losers
- Fat-cat Tesco: putting on the pounds at farmers' expense
- Garden pesticides health warning
- GM activists make a pilgrimage for a GM-free Britain
- GM activists make a pilgrimage for a GM-free Britain
- GM beet research answers very few questions
- GM contamination - Government experts disagree
- GM jury challenges FSA policy on labelling
- GM public debate fiasco
- GM study highlights need for urgent rethink over GM crops
- GM trade war - who decides what we eat?
- GM trade war accelerates
- GM won't cure hunger in Africa
- GM-free food could be "impossible"
- Government agrees to delay GM debate
- Government failing to regulate supermarkets, says new report
- Government launches GM debate
- Government may ignore public opinion on GM crops
- Government must address GM debate chaos say groups
- Government must clarify role of GM debate
- Government opposes tough Euro GM rules
- Government report on economics of GM crops
- Government to publish GM science review
- Government urges MEPs to vote for GM food
- Government warns GM farmers over contamination threat
- Hundreds of pesticides banned
- Hundreds turn out for Waste lobby
- Illegal GM contamination threat
- Is Tesco spin on Safeway takeover a joke?
- Lake District National Park first to go GM-free
- Lake District National Park to host GM debate
- Local campaigners call for GM-free Britain election pledge
- MEPs back tougher GM labels
- Ministers try to stop GM food labels
- Morrisons take-over bad news for consumers
- MPs call for extension to GM national debate
- New analysis casts doubt on GM farm scale evaluations
- New maps reveal massive extent of GM pollution threat
- Pesticide review fails consumers and farmers
- Recycling Bill clears the Commons
- Safeway decision must wait for code review
- Sainsbury's: making life taste bitter for banana growers
- Scepticism as GM debate ends
- Second reading for Recycling Bill
- Shameful EU plans for growing GM crops
- Shropshire goes gm-free
- Slow progress on pesticide residues
- Slow progress on pesticide residues
- South Gloucestershire votes to go GM-free
- South Hams votes to go GM-free
- Stop Safeway stitch-up, alliance demands
- Supermarket code fails farmers
- Supermarket code fails farmers
- Supermarkets continue to shun GM food
- Supermarkets must be blocked from Safeway takeover
- The US ghost fleet – behind the hype
- UK votes to keep highly toxic pesticide
- UN treaty regulating GM to become law
- Uncertainty over GM safety
- US files WTO GM complaint
- US threat over GM food
- Warwickshire goes GM-free
- Why the Safeway take-over must be stopped
Government warns GM farmers over contamination threat25 July 2003
British farmers who have previously grown GM oil seed rape as part of the Government's farm scale evaluations have been told that they mustn't grow conventional oil seed rape on the same land this autumn. The move follows fears that this might result in the non-GM rape suffering from significant levels of GM contamination.
A statement from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) said that "an analysis of the preliminary results of research commissioned by DEFRA...suggests that rape seeds from both conventional and GM varieties may persist in greater quantities in the ground than had previously been thought." Environment Minister Elliot Morley said; "There is concern that seeds remaining in the ground from the GM trial will germinate and that the harvested crop might exceed the new EU thresholds on GM free crops. Clearly, the farmers involved in the FSEs must not be disadvantaged."
The FSE farmers would be disadvantaged because:
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Consumers and food manufacturers throughout Europe do not want GM food ingredients;
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GM oil seed rape is not licensed for sale in the UK. However, a bizarre new EU rule allows up to 0.5 per cent GM contamination from a crop that has not been licensed in Europe. Above that level it would be illegal to sell it.
Advice offered by the EU's Scientific Committee on Plants in 2001 suggested that a five year gap should elapse between GM oilseed crops and non-GM seed production and that "volunteers may arise for up to 10 years, possibly longer".
"GM farmers have been told not to grow conventional rape on fields where they have previously grown GM varieties because new evidence shows that this is likely to lead to significant levels of GM contamination which may make these crops unsaleable," said Friends of the Earth's GM Campaigner, Pete Riley. "But DEFRA's advice is far from precautionary because scientific evidence suggests seeds will persist in soil far longer. This is further proof of the damage that GM crops can cause, and another reason why the Government must not allow them to be commercially grown in the UK."
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