Action Briefing Aug 2003 - Sept 2003
	The Newsletter of Birmingham Friends of the Earth

Reapers Creepers!

Birmingham Friends of the Earth hit the local TV news on July 12th with a personal appearance by the 'GM Reaper', ominously foreboding the death of organic farming if the Government approves the commercial growing of genetically modified (GM) crops in Britain.

The GM drop-in session organised by Moseley’s Neighbourhood Forum at the Community Development Trust building turned into a lively debate with members of the public quizzing pro-GM Herefordshire farmer Jonathan Harrington and Selly Oak MP Lynne Jones on the matter of genetically modified crops and food. Despite Lynne and Jonathan's assurances that public fears over the safety of GM to health and the environment have no firm scientific backing and that the technology promises a reduction in chemically intensive farming, the audience seemed far from convinced of either the need for or the supposed benefits of GM.

If GM crops are commercially grown in the UK it will lead to widespread contamination: there simply is no effective way of controlling pollen movement. Several serious incidents of GM contamination have already come to light, even though at present GM is grown by only minority of farmers worldwide.

A May 2002 EU report concluded that if GM crops are grown at the same rate as in the US, the background levels of GM pollen will mean that even farmers who are not growing GM crops might have to label their crops as GM. As organic crops are not allowed to contain above a certain threshold of GM, it could well be 'R.I.P. Organic Farming'.

As if that wasn't bad enough, GM crops leave organic farmers liable to ruinous fines and prosecution. In Canada, biotech multinational Monsanto claims that farmers who unexpectedly find GM growing in their fields are thieves, and the law agrees with Monsanto. In North America, GM companies have so far brought 450 lawsuits against farmers whose crops have been accidentally contaminated by patented GM crop plants, the most famous case being that of Percy Schmeiser, a farmer from Saskatchewan, Canada, who was fined $260,000 when his canola (rapeseed) fields were contaminated with Monsanto’s Round-Up Ready canola.

But organic farmers are fighting back. In Canada, the Saskatchewan Organic Farmers' Directorate is suing GM companies Monsanto and Aventis for the group's members' loss of their organic status. And in the UK, the future of GM crops is anything but certain . . .

Theresa Haddon