Greenpeace activists arrested for removing GM crop
The morning began with Judy Khan calling Nicola Cook, Manager of a
vegetarian and vegan restaurant in Diss, and a supporter of Greenpeace
for eight years. Nicola confirmed that she had moved to Norfolk in 1990
to study at agricultural college, after which she had worked on a fruit
and an organic farm, as well as managing a small-holding. She told the
jury that she had learned much about the issues surrounding GM from
Greenpeace literature, as well as information from the Internet and from
the NGIN (Norfolk Genetic Information Network) email list. She had
previously been involved in Greenpeace True Food and Beanfeast
campaigns as well as the supermarket tours.
Nicola explained that it takes a conventional farm three years to convert
to an organic one in this country: it is tested each year by the Soil
Association, given accreditation after three years, and afterwards tested
yearly, and its accreditation can be withdrawn at any time. Asked about
the tolerance of GMOs in organic produce, Nicola said it was "zero".
At Lyng on 26 July 1999, Nicola Cook had bagged up some of the
contaminated crop, and pulled up some of the roots. She agreed in
evidence that she had said after arrest, "AgrEvo seemed happy with this
contamination, but I am not." To the prosecution, Nicola said she had
formed a view "previous to the action that there was a need to stop that
crop pollinating; I did not know whether the farmer would do it, I would
do it, AgrEvo would do it or the Government would do it." She had
emailed and phoned AgrEvo about the Lyng crop before the action to
express concern about its being allowed to pollinate.
Asked by Mr Farmer whether 100% organic farming was possible, Nicola
explained that a halfway house was possible between organic and
conventional approaches - "sustainable farming". She told the jury that
she had farmed maize for three years, one year of which was organically
farmed. She emphasised that maize was a wind-pollinated plant, and
said of Judith Jordanﾒs comments about "heavy" pollen, "I think it is an
exaggeration to say any pollen is heavy."
Owen Davies then called Brenda Ramsey to the witness box. A full-time
campaigner for Greenpeace since March 1996, and currently
campaigning to protect endangered forests, at the time of the action
Brenda was steering the True Food campaign. She had also co-ordinated
a Food Writers campaign (involving a public launch with over
250 people at the Savoy Hotel) and worked with chefs opposed to GM
foods, having first become aware of GM in 1996, when she learned that
at least 80% of processed foods may contain GM ingredients. Later her information about the issues was gleaned from scientific journals and
magazines, news clippings, and Greenpeace publications.
Brenda told the jury, "Taking the precautionary principle that
Greenpeace takes would seem to me to be the only reasonable
approach" since once GMOs were released into the environment, they
couldnﾒt be recalled. About the direct action, she explained, "I don't
think there was much more we could have doneﾅ it seemed to me we
had explored every other avenue. Having lobbied Government and
biotech companies, Brenda felt that "they seemed consistently to
disregard our concern." Asked whether the action was a publicity
exercise by Greenpeace, Brenda said there had only been one journalist
at Lyng where the point was to remove the GM crop, whereas at the
unfurling of the banner outside Canada House in Trafalgar Square, a
press release had been put out at 6am and within twenty minutes
representatives of all the major broadcasters were there.
The prosecution began by repeatedly describing the action as an attempt
to destroy property. Brenda Ramsey explained that it was not her aim
to "destroy" but to remove the crop, to de-contaminate the field and to
mount a kind of "rescue operation". Asked by Mr Farmer if she had
removed property during any other campaign, Brenda said that in a road
campaign she was involved with before Greenpeace, "I did remove a
chimney pot once from a house." Asked why, she replied, "My neck was
locked on to it."
he next defendant to be called was Andrew McParland, who has a BA
Hons in electrical engineering and now works as a researcher and
developer, and has been a Greenpeace supporter for fifteen years. He
said that there is a technical library where he works which allows him to
keep abreast of current arguments surrounding GM technology.
Questioned about his beliefs, he said he felt that "GM was too
premature, the effects on the environment have not been investigated
enough, and now cause damage."
Judy Khan then asked Andrew if he thought the field-scale trials were
"sufficiently scientific". He replied "The hypothesis is severely flawed; if
escape did happen, there are unfortunate consequences from that."
Simon Hackin was the next defendant to testify. A worker in a children's
adventure centre for the last two and a half years, Simon has a
postgraduate diploma in environmental pollution, and is chair of his local
Greenpeace group. He first became aware of the GM issue with the
arrival of non-segregated maize in this country from the USA in 1995.
He read widely about the issue in periodicals and on the Internet, and
said that he thought the field-scale technology was wrong - it wasn't
based on a precautionary principle and the scientific steering group
wasn't in place at the time of the planting of the Lyng crop.
Simon explained to the jury that Greenpeace had made various efforts
to put a stop to the field-scale trials, including having in-house lawyers
working on this issue, reports being published, and advice being given to
governments and industry on potential solutions as well as flaws in the
trials.
Simon Hackin's testimony continues tomorrow.
