Action Briefing December 2006 - January 2007
	The Newsletter of Birmingham Friends of the Earth

Consultation on the Coexistence of GM and non-GM Crops

Thanks to the national campaign against GM food, GM companies have been thwarted in their efforts to impose GM crops as mainstream and occupy our shopping shelves with their products. The GM industry is now trying to sneak through the back door with some help from the Government. The consultation on the cohabitation of GM and non-GM crops closed at the end of October and the proposals from DEFRA seemed a deliberate attempt to allow GM back in the country. Here are some of the points highlighted in our response:
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Arbitrary and unjustified GM contamination

From the start, it seemed that the Government had arbitrarily decided that the minimum amount of tolerable contamination was going to be 0.9 per cent.  An independent legal opinion said that the Government’s approach of basing coexistence measures on achieving a GM contamination threshold of 0.9 percent was “fundamentally flawed”.
 
Our proposal was that, instead, the highest tolerable level of GM contamination should be equal to the lowest reliable detection limit of 0.1 percent. Many food companies already require non-GM ingredients to be produced to lower thresholds of 0.1 per cent as a result of consumer pressure. The Government should help farmers who supply these companies to meet consumer demand for GM-free food.

Voluntary code of practice

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) wanted the set of measures proposed to control GM contamination to become a voluntary code of practice for the industry! We suggested that all actions to reduce GM contamination must be included in legislation.

We have also highlighted a lack of caution with respect to the potential for contamination with DEFRA describing measures such as cleaning GM material from farm machinery as “desirable but not essential”. This was inconsistent with previous government research proving the contrary!

Most importantly, voluntary schemes do not have a good history in UK farming – previous voluntary schemes such as attempts to control straw burning by a code of practice, the Pesticide Safety Precaution Scheme and the voluntary code of conduct for pesticide use all had to be replaced by statutory approaches.

Impact on organic farming

It also seemed unfair that non-GM farmers and especially organic farmers would have to bear the burden of applying these measures when they are not responsible for it in the first place. This will put increased costs on organic farmers, and the organic food industry will struggle to continue to produce the GM-free food that consumers want.

Need for a public register

Finally the Government is questioning the need for a GM public register. It is in the public interest to have a transparent and open system – people have the right to know where GM crops are being grown. Public registers are vital, and should supply detailed information in advance of any planting, and be accessible to everyone.

Nicolas Souroup