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Embargo: Friday 10th October 2003
Photo Opportunity: Organic farmer Gerald Miles and his tractor in the centre of Birmingham with campaigners from Birmingham Friends of the Earth. Friday 10th October 2003, approx 1pm-1.30pm, Birmingham Fruit & Veg Markets, Edgbaston St.
Farmer's Pilgrimage
For A GM-Free Britain
Pembrokeshire organic farmer Gerald Miles will arrive in Birmingham City Centre in his tractor on Friday as part of a national weekend of protest against genetically modified (GM) crops. Gerald is travelling by tractor from Pembrokeshire all the way to London via Coventry [1] to join Friends of the Earth's 'Tractors and Trolleys Parade' in London on Monday 13th October 2003 [2].
The Government must soon decide whether or not to approve the commercial growing of GM crops in the UK. If environment ministers approve GM then we could see the crops, such as fodder maize, being grown commercially in our countryside as early as Spring 2004.
Friends of the Earth together with the Five Year Freeze, Genetic Engineering Network and GM-Free Cymru are holding the Tractor and Trolley Parade, a national demonstration to show the strength of opposition among farmers, consumers, and environmental campaigners to GM crops and food [3].
Mr Miles said:
"As a farmer I am concerned that no-one knows the impact of GM on our health or the environment. I believe planting GM crops on a commercial scale is not a risk we should be taking especially as consumer demand for non-GM food is overwhelming. GM crops, whether planted commercially or as trials, will inevitably contaminate both non-GM and organic crops."
"If the Government does go ahead with the commercialisation of GM, it will put our seed purchases and chemicals under corporate control and it will be another nail in the farming coffin. I am planning to drive my tractor all the way from Pembrokeshire to London to join the Tractors and Trolleys Parade to draw attention to our concerns".
Birmingham Friends of the Earth's GM Campaigner, Theresa Haddon said:
"We can't let2003 be the last GM-free harvest in the UK. If Government Ministers ignore the concerns of farmers, consumers and even their own scientific advisors [4], and allow GM crops they will be letting loose irreversible GM contamination of our food and countryside. Taking away people's right to choose GM-free and organic food at a time when the risks of GM to consumers and the environment are still unclear would be recklessness of the highest order by this Government."
Gerald is making
a 'pilgrimage' for a GM-free Britain to the Parade on Monday [5]. He will be
joined by Birmingham and West Midlands Friends of the Earth campaigners Karen
Leach and Chris Crean who will be cycling to London.
Editor's Notes
[1] Gerald will be travelling through Birmingham and the City Centre on Friday October 10th. He will be in Dudley in the morning, leaving between 11.00am and 12noon. His route from Dudley will be along A4123, A456 City Centre, then A41 (Digbeth) and A45 to Coventry.
There will be a GM Free Carnival in Coventry, Saturday 11th October: Organic farmer, Gerald Miles will be driving his tractor to 'The Tractor and Trolley Parade' in London from Pembrokeshire via Coventry and Ryton Organic Gardens. At Coventry we will send the tractor off to London followed by a GM Free Carnival Float.
Saturday 11th October
[2] The Tractor and Trolley Parade on October 13th will set off from Bedford Square in Bloomsbury, central London led by three tractors and a samba band. We will make three stops along the route: at the NFU headquarters in Shaftesbury Avenue; at No 10 Downing Street, and at DEFRA in Smith Square. The Parade will finish at the Emmanuel Centre, Marsham Street for a rally and harvest tea. At each stop, we will present our targets with a GM free loaf in the shape of a harvest sheaf and signed copies of the Message of Opposition and other letters/signatures collected by members of the Five Year Freeze. We will be demanding that the Prime Minister, NFU and DEFRA listen to the concerns of farmers and people in the UK, resist pressure from the biotechnology companies and reject the growing of GM crops in the UK.
For more information go to www.tractorandtrolley.com
[3] The publication of the results of the Government's 'GM Nation?' debate, released in September, revealed strong opposition to GM crops and food among the general public.
GM Nation encouraged people to fill in a questionnaire, and 36,557 forms were returned. More than half (54 per cent) said they never want to see GM crops grown in the UK. A further 18 per cent would find GM crops acceptable only if there was no risk of cross-contamination, and 13 per cent wanted more research before any decision was made. A mere two per cent said that GM crops were acceptable "in any circumstances" and only eight per cent were happy to eat GM food (86 per cent were not).
The debate organisers also conducted a series of separate interviews with groups of people, representative of the general population - who didn't take part in GM Nation? - to see if there was a "silent majority" with different views. The results of this "Narrow But Deep" research "suggested that when people in the general population become more engaged in GM issues, and choose to discover more about them, they harden their attitudes to GM". This included "more concern/ greater unease about all the risks most frequently associated with GM. In particular, the more they choose to discover about GM, the more convinced they are that no one knows enough about the long-term effects of GM on human health."
[4] A science review, led by Professor Sir David King (the Government's Chief Scientific Adviser), and published on 21st July as part of the Government's 'GM Nation?' consultation, highlighted significant gaps and uncertainties in our scientific knowledge on the potential impacts of GM food and crops on our health and the environment.
The GM farm scale evaluations are expected to reveal that "two of the GM crops grown experimentally in Britain, oil seed rape and sugar beet, appear more harmful to the environment than conventional crops and should not be grown in the UK" and that some scientists "still have reservations" about the third, fodder maize. (The Guardian 2nd Oct 2003).
[5] Joining the demonstration on Monday will be a number of people from all around the country who have elected to make their own individual journeys for a GM-free Britain. Anti-GM pilgrims are walking or cycling from as far a field as Lands End and Inverness, Hereford and Scarborough and will take time on their journeys to visit significant locations, such as farm scale trial sites, organic farms and bio-technology companies.