Archived press release

Gm advisors must back freeze on crops

5 June 2000

Friends of the Earth today called on the newly created Agriculture and Environment Biotechnology Advisory Commission [AEBC], which will advise the Government on biotechnology, to back the abandonment of GM farm scale trials, and a halt to commercial approval of GM seeds. FOE wants the new Commission to “put the interests of the public and countryside ahead of the biotech industry”.

• The Government is allowing GM farm scale trials to take place despite concerns about the impact that they may have on the environment and peoples' livelihoods.Last month FOE revealed that it had purchased honey contaminated with GM pollen from a neighbouring GM trial site. And during the recent 'contaminated seed' fiasco,it was claimed that the contamination in Canada came from a GM crop at least 800 metres away. Separation distances for the UK GM trials (between GM and non-GM crops) are as little as 50 metres.
• GM crops are gaining regulatory approvals - allowing crops to be grown in the British countryside without legal restrictions - before it is certain that it is safe to grow them.A type of GM maize has already been given commercial approval. It is only a voluntary agreement with the seed company that prevents it from being grown commercially.

Adrian Bebb, Real Food campaigner at Friends of the Earth said:
“The public is rightly concerned about the effects that GM crops may have on the environment and about the way the Government has handled the issue. If this new Committee is to be more than just another PR exercise it needs to grasp the nettle.Public confidence can only be restored if the rush to commercial development is halted to allow a proper debate to take place. The Commission should call on the Government to abandon its GM trials programme and halt the commercial approval of GM seed.”

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust