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11 Nov 1999
Friends of the Earth today repeated its call for the farm-scale trials to be abandoned because of the risks they pose to the environment. The call comes as the Scientific Steering Committee publishes a report setting out the scientific methodology to be used in next year's massive expansion of the trials. The report does nothing to alleviate fears about the potential threat that these crops pose to the environment, and to the livelihoods of organic and conventional farmers and bee-keepers..
In September Friends of the Earth revealed that GM oilseed rape pollen from a farm-scale trial in Watlington, in Oxfordshire had been found by scientists four and a half kilometres from the trial site. Despite this rules requiring only a 50 metre pollen barrier around GM oilseed rape sites are still in place.
Pete Riley, senior biotech campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said:
“The Government is allowing a massive increase in GM crops when hardly anyone wants to grow them, no-one wants to sell them, and no-one is prepared to buy them. These trials threaten the environment and the livelihoods of those who are trying to meet the massive demand for organic and non-GM food. The Government should think again before it's too late. The farm scale trials are a con trick on the public.”
Contact details:
Friends of the Earth
26-28 Underwood St.
LONDON
N1 7JQ
Tel: 020 7490 1555
Fax: 020 7490 0881
Web: www.foe.co.uk/feedback.html
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