Press Release

Become a Golden Supporter

For Immediate Release: Thursday 10th July 2003

Photo Opportunity: Saturday 12th July 2003, 9.00am-1.30pm, Moseley Community Development Trust, The Post Office Building, 149-153 Alcester Road, Moseley, B13 8JP. Public drop-in meeting. Anti-GM campaigners with a “GM Reaper” and coffin marked “R.I.P. Organic Farming”.

Do Fear The (GM) Reaper

A menacing “GM reaper” bearing a coffin marked “R.I.P. Organic Farming” will join environmental campaigners and local residents at a public drop-in meeting on the future of genetically modified (GM) crops, to be held at the Moseley Community Development Trust on Saturday. Campaigners are worried that the Government is poised to allow the commercial growing of GM crops in the UK [1] with unforeseen and potentially harmful consequences for human health, farming and the environment [2].

The meeting, organised by Central Moseley Neighbourhood Forum, will give members of the public the opportunity to ask questions of campaigners from Birmingham Friends of the Earth, as well as Sparkhill councillor Jerry Evans, Selly Oak MP Dr Lynne Jones, and Herefordshire farmer Jonathan Harrington.

Birmingham Friends of the Earth campaigner Theresa Haddon said:

“We want as many people as possible to have their say on GM. Silence will be taken as compliance and will be used by the Government to justify commercialising GM even though polls show that the majority of the public is firmly against this.

GM crops threaten our food, farming and environment with GM pollution, and take away farmers’ right to grow and consumers’ right to choose non-GM and organic food. There is much scientific uncertainty surrounding the potential impacts these crops have on people, the environment and the food chain but the Government chooses to ignore them.”

At Birmingham’s NEC on 3rd June the Government launched ‘GM Nation?’ [3], a series of six public debates on GM ahead of the decision on whether to commercialise GM crops in the UK. But Birmingham Friends of the Earth believes that the consultation has not reached enough people, given the high level of mistrust of GM amongst the public [4].

Organiser of Saturday’s meeting, Jane Howell said:

“We aim to give as many people as possible the chance to hear the evidence for and against GM crops and make up their own minds on the issue.”

Editor's Notes

[1] In May, former Environment Minister Michael Meacher suggested that the Government might allow GM crops to be grown commercially in the UK regardless of public opinion.

[2] Friends of the Earth's main concerns around GM are:

• GM food safety: The safety of GM foods remains in serious doubt. A senior member of the British Medical Association has called for GM trials to be halted and the head of the Government's GM food safety committee has admitted that possible hazards of GM foods could have been missed.
• Market Forces: For the past four years as a response to customer demand the majority of UK food manufacturers, retailers and fast food outlets have not been using GM ingredients. It is clear that there continues to be no demand for GM food in the UK.
• Economic impact: The Government and the biotech industry are promoting genetically modified (GM) crops on the economic benefits they will supposedly bring. However, after several years of growing them in the US, the evidence of the economic benefits is far from clear.
• The farm scale trials: In 2000, in response to concerns raised by English Nature, the UK Government introduced a three year programme of farm scale trials of genetically modified (GM) herbicide tolerant crops. From the beginning, the trials have been criticised by environment organisations, local residents, and even the Government’s GM watchdog, the Agriculture Environmental Biotechnology Commission (AEBC).
• Gene flow: Recent research has revealed that the GM crops closest to commercialisation in the UK pose a particularly high risk of contaminating other crops. This raises concerns about how GM and non-GM crops can grow and co-exist in the future.
• Food security: Many people, not least those who live in countries where hunger persists, believe that a technological fix will at best address the symptoms of hunger and malnutrition, but not the causes. Many fear that corporate control over the food chain through patents and the ownership of seeds may even exacerbate the problem.
• The regulatory process: GM legislation originates in Europe and is implemented in the UK under domestic laws. Currently, new directives are being developed by the European Union (EU) to introduce traceability for GM foods and increased labelling requirements.
• Herbicide use: If GM crops get the commercial go-ahead in the UK, herbicide tolerant crops will be the first to be grown. For the biotechnology industry they offer substantial opportunities for increasing profits, as they own both the GM seed and the herbicide to which it is tolerant.
• Liability: Currently there is no legislation to require biotech companies to pay compensation or clear up any damage caused by their crops. If GM food and crops are as safe as the industry says they are, why won't it accept liability for any damage caused?
• Seed purity: In order to protect the public's right to choose non-GM food, or for farmers to grow non-GM crops, it is essential that seed stocks remain free of GMOs. This will become increasingly difficult to achieve if GM crops are grown widely in the UK.
• Corporate control: Only a handful of global corporations such as Monsanto and Bayer control GM and stand to gain even more power over global food production through biotechnology.

[3] After months of delay, GM Nation? The Public Debate was launched on June 3rd and runs until 18th July.

[4] Public opposition to GM food and crops remains high. In October 2002, an NOP survey revealed that 57 per cent didn't want the Government to allow GM crops to be commercially grown across the UK. The previous month a poll for the Grocer found that 58 per cent would avoid products containing GM ingredients. And in April 2003, a MORI poll showed that 56 per cent opposed GM food, compared to a paltry one in seven (14 per cent) who support it.

A 2001 Eurobarometer poll showed that 70% of the European public don’t want GM food and 94% want the choice of whether to eat it or not.