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NEWS May 11 2001
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| Genetix RoundUp ™ Two of the three planned GM farm-scale trials in Wales were called off this week after landowner Tony Marlow, a former Conservative MP, pulled out, citing ‘misinformation’ and mixed messages from the government. Marlow had faced massive objections from local organic growers who were worried about the prospect of cross-pollination damaging the status of their crops. The last remaining trial in Wales, at Sealand right on the English border, was the scene of a peaceful protest complete with free organic food on Tuesday 8th. The farmer, John Cottle, is coming under increasing pressure from locals to plough up the trial crop he planted last weekend, in order to preserve Wales’ GM-free status. Meanwhile, the battle to protect the Henry Doubleday Research Association (HDRA) experimental organic gardens at Ryton in Warwickshire is continuing. A farm-scale trial of GM fodder maize is due to be planted just 2 miles from the gardens; a pollen expert HDRA has consulted reports that at this distance cross-pollination of the maize with Ryton organic sweetcorn plots is entirely possible. Any level of cross-pollination would endanger the organic status of the gardens, where the HDRA maintains a seedbank of rare varieties. MP Alan Simpson has called for direct action against the crop if it is planted, while even Environment Minister Michael Meacher has spoken out against the site which his own department approved a month ago. Apparently the Department of the Environment was ignorant of the proximity of the trial to the HDRA gardens, although SCIMAC, the biotech industry body responsible for the trials, knew about it in advance but did not see fit to inform HDRA, who only heard of the trial through a local radio station. SCIMAC, biotech corporation Aventis which developed the GM maize, and the Department of the Environment claim ‘the amount of cross-pollination is likely to be zero’, though that does not of course mean there will be no cross-pollination, especially as in the past the industry has been found to ignore pollination by insects, which can carry pollen much further than the wind. Aventis is refusing to back down, raising suspicions that they are trying to force Michael Meacher into a pre-election corner in the hope of getting him sacked in the inevitable post-election Cabinet re-shuffle. Local people opposing the trial are holding daily vigils outside the field where the crop may be planted. The vigils will be held from 11.00am outside the gate to the field adjacent to the junction of Fosse Way (B4455) and Wolston Lane. Contact: ljackson@hdra.org.uk |