Archived press release

Gm crops now growing in uk

17 May 2000

The Government has now confirmed that Canadian exporter Advanta Seeds sent GM oilseed rape seeds to both Sweden and the UK by accident.

The Swedish Government has admitted that 14 tonnes of spring oilseed rape were imported for the 1999 growing season, of which 9 tonnes were planted on 1,200 hectares. The remaining seeds were planted on around 600 hectares this year. The crops went into animal feed and rapeseed oil.

The UK Government has known that GM crops were also imported into the UK in this way for over two weeks. It has claimed that only 1% of Adventa's imports contained GM rapeseed, but has failed to give any details of total tonneage. The notably vague and feeble Parliamentary Answer (PQ 1549, from Agriculture Minister Joyce Quin to Judy Mallaber)fails to deal with at least seven key questions

1. Why has it taken two weeks for UK Government to come clean about this fiasco?
2. How many tonnes were imported and when?
3. How many hectares have the imported seed been grown in?
4. Where was it grown?
5. Has it gone into animal feed, or into the human food chain?
6. Is it still being grown?
7. If it is, what steps will the Government take to get it removed from the ground?

FOE food campaigner Adrian Bebb said:

"The Government is now making the outrageous claim that GM crops have been imported, sown and presumably harvested and sold commercially in the UK, but that this poses 'no risk to human health and the environment'. How on earth can this claim be made, when finding the extent of any risk was supposed to be the whole point of the Government trials programme?

Instead of coming clean about this fiasco, the Government has sat on the truth for over two weeks. Genetically modified food is a gigantic experiment with human health and the environment. The Government has lost control of the experiment altogether. Worse, it now seems to have decided the results of the experiment before it has even been conducted. Yet again, the interests of the biotech companies have been put before the safety of the environment and the public.”

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust