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Anger over Government GM 'co-existence' plans

Jan 1 2007

95 per cent of more than 11,000 public respondents' to a Government consultation, are opposed to Government proposals to grow GM crops alongside conventional and organic, it was revealed today [1]. Friends of the Earth said the Government must now listen to public calls for much stricter `co-existence' rules, including keeping GM contamination under the minimum detection level of 0.1% and ensuring that GM companies are responsible for any economic liability caused by contamination.

The results were published today by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs [DEFRA], following a consultation last year. DEFRA says it will await the results of `important' further research and has promised to commission new research in the light of overwhelming public concern. [2].

Friends of the Earth Food Campaigner Kirtana Chandrasekaran said:

"The public has clearly seen that the Government's pathetic proposals will allow GM crops to be grown throughout Britain with little regard for the impact that GM contamination might have on farmers or consumers. The Government may be willing to bend over backwards to accommodate the biotech industry, but the public is not. Ministers must now go back to the drawing board. They must accept that basing their proposals on unacceptably high levels of GM contamination is fundamentally wrong.

"It is bizarre that the Government is now talking of providing strong evidence for its proposals. It should have done this in the first place. The consultation has been a complete charade."

In July 2006, DEFRA launched a consultation on its measures to regulate how GM crops can `coexist' with conventional and organic crops and who should pay when farmers suffer economic damage caused by GM contamination. But the consultation completely failed to even attempt to control contamination of conventional and organic crops with GM. [3]

The UK Government proposals were based on European food labelling rules, where accidental GM contamination of up to 0.9 per cent is allowed before foods have to be labelled as GM. The UK Government used this to propose that 0.9% GM should be allowed in conventional and even organic crops. Now consumers have shown that only GM below the detection limit of 0.1% will be acceptable to them.

A legal opinion for Friends of the Earth by two of the UK's leading European law specialists also found the DEFRA proposals to be fundamentally flawed and incompatible with EU law, including its decision to. [4]

• "minimise" GM contamination of conventional and organic crops rather than "avoid" it,
• Propose that a Public Register of sites where GM crops are grown is not legally required under EU Law,
• Exclude allotment holders and gardeners from those who should be legally informed of the intention to plant a GM crop near their land.

Friends of the Earth is calling for:

• Strict rules aimed at preventing GM contamination of all non-GM crops, down to the limit of detection, currently 0.1 per cent;
• Legislation to ensure that biotech companies are strictly liable for any damage to the environment and to farmers' livelihoods;
• Support for the growing demand for local decision-making on GM crops. In the UK 60 local authorities have passed resolutions opposing GM crops in their areas, covering a population of 18.5 million people

Notes

[1] DEFRA summary of GM co-existence consultation (PDF†)

[2] Ministerial statement on Co-existence consultation

[3] Friends of the Earth press release Thursday 20 July `Government GM consultation slammed'

[4] Legal opinion available with Friends of the Earth

†To view PDF files you will need to download Adobe Acrobat Reader. Visually impaired users can get extra help with these documents from access.adobe.com.

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