Future Looks Gloomy For GM Giants

The Last Chance Rally held on the 9th March in Warwickshire may have been the last chance for GM activists to pull up Aventis GM crops at a public rally. Aventis CropScience, the company responsible for the majority of the UK's controversial farm-scale trials is in the final stages of being purchased by Bayer AG. The purchase is due to be completed by the end of the March 2002 but may be delayed by anti-trust investigations currently being carried out by the European Commission. Following a public meeting in nearby Stratford-upon-Avon, over 100 white-suited protesters decontaminated part of a field of GM oilseed rape close to the village of Long Marston. This protest may well be the last in the long line of GM crop decontaminations which have plagued Aventis in the two and a half years of its existence. In the UK alone over 50 of its test sites have been at least partially decontaminated. Only a handful of activists have ever been convicted for this. Aventis have had enough of GM crops and are passing on this particular can of worms to Bayer - what will the future hold for them?

The future is also looking gloomy for Syngenta, the world's largest agrochemicals group. The company reported flat earnings before exceptional charges this year. According to the Financial Times, European opposition to genetically modified crops has cost Syngenta 'tens of millions of dollars.' The Syngenta Chief Executive, Michael Pragnell, has said that he expects the agricultural market to remain difficult in 2002.

Further news regarding GM crops can be found in the Genetix Update magazine, downloadable from the Totnes Genetics Group website.
http://www.togg.org.uk/

Long Marston report on Indymedia
http://uk.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=24688&group=webcast