Do you remember 2003? When our group won the FOE Campaign of the Year for our successful attempt, inspired by Billy the talking Budgie, to encourage South Gloucestershire to declare itself a GM-Free area? A total of 60 local authorities eventually followed suit, covering 18.5 million people, matching the overwhelming public rejection of GM food. Then two of the three GM crops tested failed the Government Field Trials later in the year, and we thought we had won. The Davids of the NGOs had apparently defeated the Goliaths of the Biotech companies.

But we were wrong!  Look at what is happening in 2006. In January the European Commission overruled the European Parliament and authorised the importation into Europe of three genetically modified maize varieties produced by US company Monsanto.  In February the WTO decided, despite massive public opposition across the continent, that Europe’s moratorium on GMOs broke trade rules because it caused undue delays in the approvals process, and that arguments such as consumer choice, time for public deliberation, protecting non-GM and organic agriculture, or seeking environmental and health protection would be no longer allowable.

And is the picture any better in the UK?? You already know the answer don’t you? Only this week, Friends of the Earth is mounting a legal challenge to the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) – a body set up to protect the public - for its failure to take appropriate action to prevent illegal GM rice from being sold to us. This follows the discovery of GM-contaminated rice in two types of own-brand rice sold by Morrisons. GM rice has not been authorised for human consumption anywhere in the world. However, a leaked memo reveals that the FSA privately told food retailers and manufacturers that it did not expect them to test for contamination, nor to remove any contaminated rice from their shelves!

And now we have the current Government consultation on how GM and non-GM crops can `co-exist' in England, which is a thinly disguised attempt to allow GM crops in through the back door. The consultation seeks views on what practical measures are needed to allow GM crops to `coexist' with conventional and organic crops and who should pay when farmers suffer economic damage caused by GM contamination. But the crucial issue of how to ensure that non-GM crops are protected from GM contamination will not be asked, because the Government's consultation assumes that significant levels of GM contamination up to 0.9 per cent are acceptable. This approach has been criticised in a legal opinion as being “fundamentally flawed”.

The consultation also questions whether public registers of GM crop locations will be necessary. We believe that the public has a right to know full details of where GM crops are being grown, and public registers must be made mandatory. The Government is cynically disregarding the millions of consumers who have clearly said they want their food, farming and environment to stay GM-free. We urge everyone to take part in this consultation and make it clear that GM-free should mean GM-free: website.

Tony Harding

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