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

GM: a veg too far

It seems no-one wants to touch genetically modified (GM) crops with a barge pole. Insurance companies have refused to provide liability cover against damage caused by GM crops. Supermarkets have told Tony Blair they will refuse to stock GM foods, even if he manages to persuade a sceptical public to accept GM produce. The British Retail Consortium, which represents 90% of high-street shops, has sent an unequivocal warning to the Government that GM food is not commercially viable in the UK. The National Trust is to ban its 2,000 tenant farmers from growing GM crops on its land.

Public opposition to GM food and crops remains as high as ever. A National Opinion Poll (NOP) survey in October 2002 revealed that 57% of people did not want the Government to allow the commercial growing of GM crops in the UK. Likewise a MORI poll in April 2003 showed that 56% opposed GM food with only 14% in favour. A survey in the Grocer magazine (20 September 2002) found that 58% would avoid products containing GM ingredients. And an NOP poll for Friends of the Earth, published on the same day, revealed that 63% of people that regularly bought honey wanted it to be GM-free.

Mistrust
The level of public mistrust is understandable when you consider that contamination from locally-grown GM crops could affect the sale of nearby non-GM crops and food; that people will end up eating GM even though its effects on health are unknown; that biotech companies have no legal responsibility to clean up the environment or compensate those affected if GM food or crops are found to be unsafe while farmers, manufacturers and suppliers could be sued for the harm caused by GM food that they have grown or supplied.

In September the Sunday Times reported that it had discovered GM material in honey from beehives two miles from the nearest GM trial site. In 2000 Friends of the Earth discovered a similar incident. Honey producers are advised to keep their hives at least 6 miles from the nearest GM site to avoid contamination. The cost and inconvenience of doing this is borne by the beekeepers. If GM crops are commercialised across the UK avoiding GM crops will be almost impossible. English Nature, the Government's wildlife adviser said in February 2000 that GM crops could threaten wildlife such as farmland birds. Earlier this year, US researchers found that GM crops can pass genes to related plants, making stronger weeds. And, in Canada, GM oilseed rape 'weeds' have appeared that are resistant to three herbicides.

Setback
More recently, the case for GM crops suffered another major setback when in July, Iowa State University reported that five species of so-called ‘superweeds’ have evolved in the last seven years which are resistant to glyphosate, the powerful herbicide marketed by Monsanto under the name of Roundup, to which both GM fodder beet and sugar beet are tolerant. Monsanto and others have spun the line that GM crops and their weedkillers will have less impact on the environment, but the fact of resistant weeds means that they will use more, removing a central plank from the whole argument for GM crops.

At the Royal Show in Stoneleigh, Margaret Beckett announced that GM food was perfectly safe - a bold claim considering that up until a year ago only eight safety trials had been undertaken and of these only four were feeding trials, three of which were undertaken by GM companies. And as former Environment Minister Michael Meacher and Food & Farming Minister Lord Whitty have pointed out, many of the Government’s scientific advisors have commercial links with GM companies that puts their independence into question. Professor Phil Mullineaux, a key member of the committee, who spoke for GM at the Coventry Friends of the Earth public meeting, has received funding from biotech giants Monsanto and Syngenta and works for the John Innes Research Centre, funded by Lord Sainsbury.

Manipulation
But if I had to give only one reason to oppose GM crops it would be this: GM crops are about the manipulation of international patents to create guaranteed markets for monopolistic agribusiness and represent an attack on the traditional methods of seed-saving that farmers have used for centuries and for free. They create increasingly dependent client farmers, increasingly indebted or fined and imprisoned when they try saving the seeds in the traditional way. Far from feeding the hungry in a world awash with agricultural surpluses, GM technology undermines the viability of small farmers, the diversity of crops and seeds, and ability of small landowners and indigenous crop strains to survive.

James Botham