GM IN THE UK 2004 - REVIEW OF THE YEAR (parts 1 & 2)

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GMW: GM IN THE UK 2004 - REVIEW OF THE YEAR (parts 1 & 2)

 

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Wed, 5 Jan 2005 23:06:58 GMT

 

 

 

 

GM IN THE UK 2004 - REVIEW OF THE YEAR (parts 1 & 2)

http://www.gmwatch.org

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GM IN THE UK 2004 - REVIEW OF THE YEAR

 

Here are parts 1 & 2 of our review of the GM issue in the UK in 2004.

 

" ...we have a good deal to celebrate. The GM industry has effectively

pulled out of the UK, and there is now not a single GM variety in the

seed listing pipeline. We have seen a quite extraordinary demonstration

of people power... " - Dr Brian John

 

[for more REVIEWS OF THE YEAR, incl. Japan, France and Australia, see:

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive.asp ]

 

1. PEOPLE POWER AND THE POLITICS OF THE MAD-HOUSE - Dr Brian John of

GM-free Cymru

2. My 17 highlights of the year - Jean Saunders of GM-ACT

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1. 2004: PEOPLE POWER AND THE POLITICS OF THE MAD-HOUSE

 

It's been an interesting year for those of us who are seeking to

prevent a plague of GM foods and crops from infecting the UK. For a

start,

we have a good deal to celebrate. The GM industry has effectively

pulled out of the UK, and there is now not a single GM variety in the

seed

listing pipeline. We have seen a quite extraordinary demonstration of

people power, with a host of NGOs, consumer organizations and special

interest groups taking on -- and defeating -- the GM multinationals, the

British government and a GM propaganda industry which is well resourced

and which knows all about media manipulation and spinning techniques.

David has taken on Goliath and knocked the giant over, although it

remains to be seen whether the said giant has any life left in his

battered

body.

 

Those of us who belong to small anti-GM organizations should -- if we

have not done it already -- give a massive vote of thanks (and some

financial support) to GM WATCH for the manner in which it has kept us

informed, week after week, of the main GM stories and the main issues

demanding attention -- and for exposing the corruption which lies at the

heart of the GM enterprise. WEEKLY WATCH is essential reading for all of

us who do not have the time to scour the literature and the web for

GM-related news items, and the GM WATCH website (including " The Biotech

Brigade " ) is to my mind the single most influential item in our

campaigning armoury. Together with Lobbywatch.org it gives us a fresh

and

accurate insight into the reasons for the decline and fall of GM

corporations and GM science. We have always suspected it, but now we

know that

the GM enterprise is corrupt from top to bottom. It is based upon dodgy

science conducted by scientists whose activities are orchestrated and

controlled, and who are " discouraged " from publishing anything which

might be inconvenient to the multinationals who pay them. These same

multinationals increasingly control the means of communication. Research

which might throw up uncomfortable results is carefully avoided.

Scientists who do have concerns about the safety and stability of GM

crops

are marginalised, vilified and victimised, as Arpad Pusztai, Terje

Traavik and Ignacio Chapela know only too well. Among their

assailants are

" phantom scientists " like Mary Murphy and Andura Smetacek, who are

permanently hidden away from view within the offices of shadowy PR

organizations like the Bivings Group and various fake persuaders and

lobby

groups. There are probably some honest GM scientists around, but they do

not have a hope in Hell of winning the sympathy or support of the British

public so long as they keep company with people who properly belong in

a rogue's gallery of cheats, liars and media manipulators.

 

Perhaps we should not be too surprised by the revelations about the

thuggish and counter-productive working methods of the GM multinationals

and their allies, but I am personally amazed that the Blair government

has persisted, right through the past year, with its mad campaign to

spread GM crops across the British countryside and to ram GM foods down

the throats of the people of this country. What on earth can lie behind

this strange obsession? We know that our beloved leader chooses his

advisers carefully and listens only to those who extoll the virtues of

biotechnology and who claim that GM crops and foods are essentially

harmless. We also assume that Tony Blair has made a deal with George

Bush

to " facilitate " the large-scale import of GM foods into Europe and to

provide support, off the record, for the GM case being brought by the

USA, Argentina and Canada through the WTO against the EU. International

diplomacy is as mysterious as it is dirty. But it is intriguing, to say

the least, that the PM appears not to hear what the British public has

been saying to him very loudly for the last six years -- that they are

not convinced about the safety of GM crops and foods, and that they

want nothing to do with them. They wonder how many times they have to

say

" No! " before the Prime Minister understands what they mean. Consumer

organizations, the popular media, opinion polls, focus groups and

assorted strange consultation exercises have all shown that there is

great

and continuing antipathy towards GM, and farmers, supermarkets and food

manufacturers have all responded to the pressure to keep Britain

essentially GM-free. But not the PM. Our Tony, supported by the

likes of Sir

John Krebs, Lord May and Lord Sainsbury, insists that he and his

cronies are right and that everybody else is wrong.

 

In the promotion of the PM's pro-GM agenda, the farm-scale trials were

rigged in order to demonstrate that GM crops are less damaging to the

environment than non-GM equivalents. The Government was genuinely taken

aback by the results of the sugar beet and oilseed rape trials, but

derived a crumb of comfort from the GM maize trials -- in spite of the

fact that they too were seriously flawed and used management regimes that

would never be replicated in the real world. The Environmental Audit

Committee said as much, and was roundly condemned by the Government for

its troubles. Margaret Beckett announced in March 2004 that GM maize

plantings were to be allowed, in spite of the fact that Chardon LL was

already known to be a failure, and in spite of the fact that the Welsh

Assembly was refusing to add the variety to the Seeds Register. Bayer

then bowed to the inevitable by withdrawing its applications for Chardon

LL. Still the Government persisted with its pro-GM campaign, working

against many other EU counties to reduce GM labelling requirements and

to block other moves designed to control GM releases in to the

environment and into the food chain. With John Krebs safely

reappointed as

Chairman of the FSA the Government knew that the " GM-no harm " message

would

be trumpeted at every opportunity; and with Bob May at the head of the

Royal Society it knew that the GM scientists would be given free rein

to trumpet the virtues of the technology. With ACRE, SCIMAC, ACNFP and

other key committees all dominated by GM industry placements, it

assumed that the public would eventually be bludgeoned into accepting

that GM

crops and foods should be welcomed by all rational people; but it

assumed wrongly, for those committees were shown over and again to be

complacent, biased and even incompetent. In fact during the year they

contributed, in no small measure, to the inexorable decline of public

confidence in science generally, by showing that they have no regard

for the

public good.

 

The only Committee that did show some awareness of safety doubts and

public concerns, Prof Malcolm Grant's AEBC, proved itself to be so

independent and so hard-working that it made Margaret Beckett

increasingly

irate, and as a reward for its service to the public it is to be wound

up, in a fit of pique, before it can do any more damage to Mr Blair's

great GM project.

 

In other areas too, the Government has been involved in extraordinary

convolutions while trying to keep its GM balls in the air. It was

involved in a despicable Parliamentary campaign to kill off Gregory

Barker's Liability Bill, with DEFRA showing a singular lack of

commitment to

putting anything better in its place. Massive pressure has been put on

the Welsh Assembly and the Scottish Parliament to accept the

Westminster view of (for example) GM Free Zones, in spite of the fact

that those

two bodies are " competent authorities " in their own right. On the

matter of GM coexistence, DEFRA knows full well that it is impossible,

but

persists with an absurd consultation exercise which will waste huge

sums of public money and waste the time of thousands of individuals who

have much better things to do. Sir Humphrey would have been proud if he

himself could have dreamt up this elaborate exercise in " enabling " the

planting of GM crops which do not exist, in secret locations, for a

group of imaginary GM farmers, against the wishes of the public, and for

which there is in any case no market. That is mad enough, you might

have thought, but there is apparently no end to this insanity, since GM

crops are in any case unstable and therefore illegal under EU law, since

regulatory and testing regimes are shambolic, and since evidence is

tumbling in from all over the world that GM crops do not reduce

agrichemical use, are damaging to the environment, and induce

potentially harmful

physiological effects when they are ingested.

 

Why on earth, one might ask, would any person with a functioning brain

want anything to do with GM crops or foods, which bring no benefits

whatsoever to the consumer or to the environment? The answer, of course,

is that Monsanto, Novartis, Syngenta and the other GM multinationals

have invested so hugely in GM technology that they cannot afford to walk

away from it. And as long as they persist with

it, and as long as they continue to exercise control within the US

administration, the WTO case against the EU will continue and our Prime

Minister will continue to play his devious part in promoting GM

technology. But no company can continue to suffer from public abuse,

trading

losses and falling share prices for too long, and Monsanto's

shareholders, for example, have already started to question the

company's policy of

employing bully-boy tactics and promoting GM products in the face of

massive global opposition. Monsanto, and the other companies, will back

off eventually, when shareholder investment dries up and when directors

perceive that they need public goodwill and that greater financial

opportunities lie in other fields.

 

Until that day is reached, the American obsession with GM crops and

foods will continue, and we will have to cope with a British government

that scuttles around doing the bidding of President Bush, promoting lousy

science and acting directly against the wishes, and the best interests,

of the British public. Mr Blair assumed, four years ago, that we would

soon become tired of anti-GM campaigning and that we would simply have

to accept GM crops in our fields and GM foods in our larders. He

profoundly misunderstands the resolve of the British public and the

commitment and skill of thousands of anti-GM campaigners, just as he

profoundly

misunderstands the unique threats posed by GM technology.

 

So hang in there, folks, and maintain a state of high alert. The

battle is almost won -- and a Happy GM Free New Year to everybody!

 

Brian John

GM Free Cymru

------

2. Jean Saunders of GM-ACT picks out 17 highlights of 2004

 

The year was unprecedented in that there were only two GM crop trials

in the UK compared to hundreds in previous years whilst all attempts to

enter GM seed varieties on the National List were abandoned, including

the infamous GM maize variety Chardon LL. The publication of the

results of the farmscale trials of winter sown oil seed rape were delayed

further and the year ended with the news that the Government's GM

scrutiny body is to be abolished.

 

Here are some of the highlights of the year in roughly chronological

order (more detail below)

 

1. GMO Bill

2. ACRE recommends growing GMHT maize - ministers agree - hostility

follows!

3. Councillor plans to halt GM maize

4. GM giant culls top jobs in Europe - Rylott sacked

5. Liberty Link Rice

6. Cows Dance on Sainsbury's Roof to launch National actions against

GM animal feed.

7. Local authorities pass GM free resolutions

8. Bayer bins Chardon LL

9 No GM seed varieties proposed for UK national List

10. Jeffrey Smith tour

11. Syngenta to move its labs to US

12. Krebs to stand down to cries of good riddance

13. Co-existence debate launched

14. Scarecrows Lobby Parliament to Keep Fields GM-free

15. Campaign to clear the decks of GM food

16. GM-free businesses launched

17. Government to abolish AEBC

....

1. GMO Bill

 

The New Year kicked off with a focus on the Genetically Modified

Organisms (Contamination and Liability) Bill that was taken up by Gregory

Barker, MP for Bexhill and Battle in early January. FoE produced a

briefing on why the GMO Bill was needed at

http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/gm_liability_bill_now.pdf

 

MPs battle to win GM debate

The Argus [brighton and Hove], 19 March

http://www.thisisbrightonandhove.co.uk/brighton__hove/archive/2004/03/19/BUSINES\

S3ZM.html

 

The second reading of the bill was supposed to take place in Parliament

on 26th March but it was brought forward in the day and then scuppered

by Labour's Andrew Dismore (Hendon) who requested that the House sit in

private, prompting a division. As only 23 MPs voted [most hadn't

arrived for the session and many Labour MPs abstained from voting], the

business was left over until the next meeting - essentially this meant

that

there would be no time for the second reading of the GM Bill. This

provoked outrage and media coverage:

 

The MP proposing the bill said afterwards, " Labour MPs and ministers

have conspired to prevent the House of Commons even debating the matter.

My Bill... was a common-sense approach to any new technology that

carries risks as well as benefits. However, even such a sensible

measure was

clearly too much for the Labour Government. "

http://www.fwi.co.uk/article.asp?con=14222 & sec=18 & hier=2

 

Commons Fury as GM Rules Bill Blocked

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2701435

 

2. ACRE recommends growing GMHT maize - ministers agree - hostility

follows!

 

On 13 January ACRE published its recommendations after considering the

results of the farmscale trials. As expected the way was opened to

grow GMHT maize commercially whilst " there may be viable mitigation

measures that could be used by farmers to offset any adverse effects "

with

regard to spring rape and beet!

 

http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/acre/advice/pdf/acre_advice44.pdf.

 

The House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee disagreed and

produced their report that said that the official trial of GM maize,

which

ministers are using to justify the go-ahead, is invalid and should be

repeated. They want lessons to be learnt from North America, where genes

from modified crops have contaminated organic and conventional produce.

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmenvaud.htm

 

There was stacks of media coverage on all this for months! Here's just

a small sample

 

GM crops to hit wildlife, says advisory body

http://www.foodnavigator.com/news/news-NG.asp?id=49029

 

British report gives mixed verdict on GM crops

http://www.terradaily.com/2004/040113182808.bbz2xm2b.html

 

GM experts cautious on maize crop, BBC News, UK

A team of UK Government advisers has given no clear direction to

ministers whether to commercialise GM crops.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3391431.stm

 

Both sides claim success on GM

http://test.thecourier.co.uk/output/2004/01/14/newsstory5526619t0.asp

 

UK govt adviser fails to advance GM crops debate

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N2W199390.htm

 

UK on brink of growing first GM crops

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994560

 

Fury of protesters as GM farming gets closer, e Mirror, UK

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/content_objectid=13814383_method=full_sitei\

d=50143_headline=-AMAIZED-name_page.html

 

Green light for transgenic crop

http://www.naturecom/nsu/040112/040112-6.html

 

GM Maize Trials Show No Adverse Impact

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/23428/story.htm

 

First commercial GM crop may be planted in spring after advisers give

qualified approval

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/environment/story.jsp?story=481043

 

GREEN LIGHT FOR GM CROPS

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30100-12971993,00.html

 

GM crops roll-out is blighted as MPs prepare to challenge No 10

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/environment/story.jsp?story=496238

 

UK scientists back GM maize crops

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3532973.stm

 

No 10 to approve GM crop growing

http://news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=257162004

 

GM: the closer it gets, the louder the protests

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/environment/story.jsp?story=498685

 

Government announces GM decision

www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page5493.asp

 

3. Councillor plans to halt GM maize

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/3518594.stm

BBC News 17 March, 2004

 

A councillor in Yorkshire tried a novel way to ruin government plans to

grow GM maize. John Clark, a Liberal on Ryedale District Council,

supplied organic maize for people to grow at home. They would then have

to be consulted about any GM maize being planned for the area, to avoid

cross-contamination.

 

Hundreds of people grew their own organic sweetcorn this year as a

result of the initiative.

 

4. GM giant culls top jobs in Europe - Rylott sacked

http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/story.jsp?story=496178

29 February

extract

 

" Bayer CropScience is parting company with the bosses of its GM

programmes throughout Europe, in a move which is bound to be seen as an

acknowledgement that it sees little future for the technology in Europe.

 

Among those made redundant is Dr Paul Rylott, Bayer's UK head of

bioscience, who has become the public face of the GM industry in

Britain.

The news comes just as the Government is about to approve the planting of

GM maize, produced by the company in Britain - marking Dr Rylott's

greatest triumph. He will leave within the next month and has yet to find

new employment.

 

A spokesman in the UK confirmed that all the heads of bioscience in

European countries are to go. "

 

5. Liberty Link Rice

 

The original dossier to place this GMO on the European market was sent

to the United Kingdom for assessment. ACRE could see no reason why LL

Rice should not be approved. The UK's assessment report can be

downloaded at:

http://gmoinfo.jrc.it/csnifs/C-GB-03-M5-3_%20AssessmentReport.pdf

 

There has been no decision at EU level to market this GMO.

 

6. Cows Dance on Sainsbury's Roof to launch National actions against

GM animal feed.

 

Across the country on 28 Jan seven different Sainsbury's supermarkets,

disgruntled shoppers and bandit labellers took to the aisles to protest

against the company's ongoing use of GM to feed the cows that produce

their dairy products. Local grassroots groups linked by GEN (The Genetic

Engineering Network) organized the event, and more protests are

promised across the country in the next few weeks. In Exeter, Sherbourne,

Taunton, Coventry, Bracknell, Wales, Plymouth and London shoppers were

leafleted and GM fed dairy products labelled.

 

http://www.thisisexeter.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=101955 & command=displayConte\

nt & sourceNode=99871 & contentPK=9042764

POLICE EVICT PROTESTERS IN GM DEMO

 

http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=103354 & command=displa\

yContent & sourceNode=103331 & contentPK=9033817

SUPERMARKET TARGETED BY ANTI-GM PROTESTERS

 

and the campaign continued throughout the year and with a focus on

milk:

 

GM protesters invade Sainsbury's HQ, 17 May

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=topNews & storyID=512206 & se\

ction=news

 

GM-free milk is cream of the crop

http://icnorthwales.icnetwork.couk/news/regionalnews/tm_objectid=14587826 & method\

=full & siteid=50142 & headline=gm-free-milk-is-cream-of-the-crop-name_page.html

 

The blockades continued!

 

Anti-GM protesters target Sainsbury depot

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/3703334.stm

BBC News, 30 September

 

7. Local authorities pass GM free resolutions

 

Loads [not sure of the current number but map available at

www.gmfreebritain.com] of local authorities including the entire South

West region

have now signed up to the GM-free pledge making it more difficult to

find markets for GM crops and land where it might be grown.

 

8. Bayer bins Chardon LL

 

http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory & c=Sto\

ryFT & cid=1079420034866

Beckett is blamed as Bayer bins GM plan, March 30

 

Bayer Cropscience is giving up attempts to commercialise GM maize - the

only transgenic plant to have approval for widespread cultivation.

Bayer said that the seed variety Chardon LL has been left " economically

non-viable " because of conditions Margaret Beckett, environment

secretary, imposed when she gave it limited approval this month.

 

9 No seed varieties proposed for UK national List

 

In November, Bayer also binned its attempt to list oil seed rape

varieties on the UK National List of seeds. This means that in the UK

there

are now no applications to enter any GM seeds on the national list.

However at an EU level several varieties of Bt maize were entered into

the Common Catalogue that allows any potential GM grower in Europe to

grow the variety.

 

10. Jeffrey Smith tour

 

Jeffrey Smith's book 'Seeds of Deception' was published in the UK and

there was a tour to promote the book around the country around May.

Jeffery talked about the health dangers of GM foods and the cover-up

stories. Starting with the GM-Free Cymru celebration at Mathry, on to

the

Welsh Assembly, followed by his Scotland visit, then his London meeting

with both Michael Meacher and Zac Goldsmith on the platform, and to the

South-West where GM-free policies have long had strong support. It

came to a close with the meeting held in Norwich. Jeffrey went to

Ireland

in July and then back to London for more promotion of the campaign.

 

His worldwide campaigning is incredible - this was his 108th city, in

15 countries, on 5 continents, during the last 8 months.

 

11. Syngenta to move its labs to US

 

" The whole industry understands Syngenta's decision. The UK is a

difficult place to work. " - Julian Little, a spokesman for the biotech

industry lobby group Agriculture and Biotechnology Council.

 

Syngenta was the last biotech company to retain a significant GM

research presence in the UK after decisions by Monsanto, Dupont and Bayer

Cropscience to withdraw.

 

" Anyone who isn't about to retire will leave the country. We are all

feeling, 'what the hell is the point?' " - Michael Wilson, self-proclaimed

biotech evangelist

 

" This decision shows the biotech industry misjudged the market in the

UK and Europe. Rather than retreat to the US, they should rethink the

products they offer sustainable agriculture. " - Pete Riley of Friends of

the Earth

 

Syngenta to move its labs to US

Financial Times, June 30

http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory & c=Sto\

ryFT & cid=1087373383411

 

Firm shuts British project on GM crops

The Daily Telegraph, 1 July

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/07/01/ngm01.xml & sSheet\

=/news/2004/07/01/ixhome.html

 

12. Krebs to stand down to cries of good riddance

 

Sir John Krebs to stand down (15 July, 2004)

http://www.foodstandards.gov.uk/news/newsarchive/2004/jul/krebsdown

 

Food Standards Agency Chair Sir John Krebs has told the Agency's Board

of his resignation. This move follows the announcement by Jesus College

Oxford that he will take up the post of Principal in October 2005. Sir

John will remain as FSA Chair until April 2005.

 

Krebs has been a long supporter of GMOs and has rubbished organic foods

at every opportunity.

 

13. Co-existence debate launched

 

The Co-existence debate was launched in the UK along with

pro-biotechnology researchers misrepresent findings of organic

farmers' survey to

support dubious premise that GM and organic crops successfully coexist in

the United States [PG Economics Report].

 

On 16 July the Government announced plans for its coexistence

consultation. DEFRA wasn't confident of its position on the issues of

'coexistence', liability and GM free zones. A 'pre-consultation' of

meetings

between DEFRA and specific stakeholders was held to inform its position.

The final paper expected in the autumn still hasn't gone out to public

consultation. It seems that the Government is preparing to allow routine

contamination at low levels (below 0.9%) in non-GM crops. More

information here

http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/gm/crops/index.htm#Coexistence

 

PG Economics' report was even made publicly available by the Strategy

Unit in tandem with its own report. The level of bias revealed [PG

Economics promote themselves as " independent and objective

consultants " and

are frequently quoted as experts on the economics of GM crop

cultivation] was par for the course. PG Economics were, for instance,

commissioned to provide a report on the impact of GM crops on UK farm

profitability by the UK Prime Minister's Strategy Unit to assist its

analysis of

the impact of GM crops on the UK for its report " Field work: weighing up

the costs and benefits of GM crops " .

http://agrifor.ac.uk/browse/cabi/51fa0266cf12af4379ffa8dbe06e614d.html

 

Biotech, organic coexistence research paper skews facts to support

dubious conclusion

http://www.cropchoice.com/leadstry.asp?RecID=2657

 

14. Scarecrows Lobby Parliament to Keep Fields GM-free (July 21, 2004)

 

http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/press_releases/scarecrows_lobby_parliamen_20072004\

..html

 

Nearly two-thirds of the British population support tough new laws to

prevent GM crops contaminating our food and farming, a new NOP World

survey for Friends of the Earth reveals today. The poll

results are published as scarecrows descend on Parliament to meet

with supportive MPs and lobby the Government to protect the countryside

and keep their fields GM-free.

 

15. Campaign to clear the decks of GM food

 

There are still a few GM-labelled products on supermarket shelves

which, with a bit of effort, we should be able to get rid of. Can you

help?

 

All you need to do is buy the offending items, then return them,

demanding a refund, stating the reason for returning the product as

its GM

content with your own personal comments for not wanting to eat GM food,

and why you think the supermarket shouldn't be stocking it. If hundreds

of people do this, it will certainly have an impact.

 

GM-labelled foods spotted so far:

1. Bacos (Betty Crocker) - Dried bacon flavoured soya chips.

Found in: Sainsbury's, Tesco, Safeway, Budgens, Morrisons

2. Easy Colour spray (Supercook) - Food colouring, available in red,

blue, yellow, green....etc

Found in: Sainsbury's, Somerfield, Safeway

3. Taiko Vegetarian Sushi with Pickled Vegetables.

Found in: Waitrose

4. Schwartz Salad Topping Bacon Flavour Bits

Found in: Sainsbury's, Tesco, Morrisons, Safeway, Co-op

5. Orville Redenbacher's Popcorn cakes, caramel flavour

Found in: Tesco

 

16. GM-free businesses launched

 

FoE launched a new phase in the GM-free Britain campaign in September -

GM-free businesses. A new action guide has been produced full of ideas

on how to get support for the GM-free Britain campaign from local

businesses.

 

17. Government to abolish AEBC

 

The year ended with news that government plan to abolish the AEBC

 

The Guardian, 29 December

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/green/story/0,9061,1380456,00.html

Minister to abolish GM scrutiny body

Champion of consumer choice falls victim to rift

 

extract:

The environment secretary, Margaret Beckett, is to scrap an advisory

committee after it repeatedly placed obstacles in the way of government

plans to introduce genetically modified crops.

 

The commission established by the government to monitor ethical and

social issues linked to GM crops is to be disbanded after its members

insisted that conventional and organic farmers should be protected from

contamination by GM crops - and be compensated if safeguards fail.

 

With the results of the latest GM trials due in February, Mrs Beckett,

already known to be hostile to the Agriculture and Environment

Biotechnology Commission, is expected to announce its demise early

next month,

before it can cause further difficulties.

------

2.

 

 

 

 

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