WESSEX
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PLANS TO USE TAX PAYERS MONEY TO PROMOTE DAMAGING AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS IN HAMPSHIRE CANCELLED
Natural Law Party condemns lack of proper information given to farmers
Wessex News Release
May 1998
TAXPAYERS MONEY
Plans to use tax payers’ money to promote the "acceptance" of genetically modified crops at an open day for farmers which was due to have been held this week (21st May) in Hampshire have been unexpectedly cancelled. The seminar on genetically modified oilseed rape was due to be held at Penton Mewsey, Nr Andover, backed by FACTT - "Familiarisation and Acceptance of Crops incorporating Transgenic Technology" - a body partly funded by the EU. The Natural Law Party has condemned the use of tax payers’ money for the promotion of commercial products which have potentially damaging consequences for agriculture, the environment and public health. The open day was cancelled at short notice by the organisers for fear of provoking public protest.
PROBLEMS NOT FULLY EXPLAINED
The Natural Law Party is concerned that farmers across the country are not having the full extent of problems associated with the growing of genetically modified crops properly explained to them. It believes that events of this type are an attempt to persuade farmers to accept this complex technology without drawing full attention to the risks it poses to the environment, human health and even the viability of farmers’ own businesses.
TRIAL CROP AT MARTYR WORTHY
Hampshire has a number of experimental plots of genetically modified crops, including oilseed rape currently being grown at Martyr Worthy under special licence. The government will be deciding whether or not to permit the first commercially grown genetically modified crops in the UK sometime in early 1999. GM crops have already been banned in Austria, and Luxembourg and the Swiss have a national referendum on the subject in the summer. The UK government’s own advisor on the nation’s ecology, English Nature, has called for a moratorium on the introduction of GM crops, a position which the Natural Law Party supports.
TOTAL CROP FAILURE
Whilst there is increasing awareness amongst farmers that GM oilseed rape can create significant environmental damage by, for example, creating herbicide resistant "super-weeds" through cross pollination with related species such as Wild Mustard, or Charlock, many are not aware of the growing number of economic risks associated with GM crops. These are now occurring in North America where GM varieties have been first grown on a commercial scale.
According to Rosemary Barry, Natural Law Party candidate at last year’s Winchester by-election:
"One company is currently in the process of paying out millions of dollars of compensation to growers of GM cotton in parts of the US who experienced unexplained total crop failures in 1997. Natural varieties in the same conditions were unaffected. Our farmers need to be told about this sort of thing. The performance and behaviour of large scale commercial GM crops can be very different from experimental plots."
Recent reports also confirm that GM soya and oilseed rape varieties in the US and Canada are producing lower yields and profits than their natural counter-parts, and one GM tomato variety has had to be withdrawn completely because of unexpected quality defects, despite being heralded as an economic break-though when originally promoted to farmers.
CONSUMERS DO NOT WANT TO EAT GM PRODUCTS
In addition to environmental risks and economic problems for farmers, consumers across Europe are signalling that they do not wish to eat GM foods, because of potential risks to their health. A Gallup poll commissioned by Iceland Foods shows that the vast majority of consumers who have heard about them have reservations about GM foods. Only 4% of consumers in the poll indicated that they were "very likely" to buy genetically modified food. For example, there is now evidence pointing towards increased levels of the oestrogen hormone in GM soya, which could give rise to significant human health problems. This has lead to a United Nations committee on bio-safety calling for an immediate global ban on the crop. According to Mrs Barry ,
"The growing number of unpredicted problems from GM crops, which are only now coming to light after products have been through all the statutory testing procedures and are released for commercial use, is a clear indication that the bio-technologists are not in control of their science. It is only a matter of time before this experimental technology gives rise to another food or environmental crisis on the scale of BSE, or even greater. It is not in the interests of farmers or consumers to gloss over these risks. It is wrong that this information should be concealed from them, especially if tax payers money is being used to do so."
April 28th 1998 Dorset Evening Echo article on NLP
GM crop warning
Why consumers are concerned about GM foods
Why staying GM-free is in UK agriculture's best interests
Will GM crops deliver benefits to farmers? - some realities behind
biotechnology myths
Why GM crops will put farmers at legal risk
Natural Law Party campaign to ban genetically modified foods in Wessex