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- Credibility of GM public debate hangs by a thread
- 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
Credibility of GM public debate hangs by a thread20 March 2003
The credibility of the independent public debate on the commercialisation of genetically modified (GM) food and crops is in the balance following an open meeting of the Debate Steering Board. Members expressed concern at the meeting that a DEFRA private briefing of media correspondents earlier in the week (18 March) had resulted in articles stating that: "Government officials have confirmed that this summer's debate on GM crops will not influence whether they are grown in the UK." (Farmers'Weekly Interactive 19 March 2003)
Chairman of the debate steering board Professor Malcolm Grant said he had written to DEFRA Secretary of State Margaret Beckett to seek "reassurance that we are not wasting our time".
Other members expressed concern that if decisions on commercialising GM crops were made in the run-up or during the debate, the credibility and value of the debate in the eyes of the public would be seriously damaged. The principle aim of the GM debate clearly included consideration of whether GM food and crops should be grown commercially in the UK.
There are currently 19 applications submitted through the EU (two to the UK) for commercial marketing consents for GM seeds. The UK is required to give an opinion on all of them in a rigid time-scale set down by EC Directive. This means that the UK has to say yes or no to each application during the debate. However, the Government can ask for more information on the applications which would delay the decision making process.
"The public credibility of the GM public debate is hanging by a thread. The Secretary of State must make an unequivocal statement that the Government will listen to the views of the public, as gathered through the GM Public Debate, before making a decision on the commercialisation of GM. Otherwise the Debate Steering Committee are right to think they are wasting their time. Ministers must also provide an assurance that they will not give an opinion on any application until after the debate. Failure to provide such assurances will seriously undermine the whole debate in the eyes of the public," said Friends of the Earth's Real Food Campaigner, Pete Riley.
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