According to information received by Greenpeace this afternoon, John Sanderson, a farmer in East Anglia has today taken action into his own hands and ploughed-in a field of GM-contaminated oil seed rape.
Sanderson's action follows the announcement last week that Advanta's conventional oil seed rape seed from Canada had become contaminated with Monsanto's genetically modified (GM) Roundup ready oil seed rape.
In the UK, it has now emerged that approximately 500 farmers are unwittingly growing GM-contaminated crops (12,000 acres) and that nearly double this acreage was planted last year. Other countries impacted include Sweden, France and Germany.
Greenpeace Campaigner Sarah North said, "There is no doubt that the UK Government is letting the GM genie escape from the bottle. The Government must act immediately to contain this GM pollution, eliminate contaminated imports and compensate farmers".
But whilst the Swedish Board of Agriculture is tonight considering an injunction to destroy the crop, the UK Government in contrast has taken no action.
Although the UK Government knew about the contaminated seed a month ago - whilst the planting season was still underway - they failed to recall the contaminated seed. They chose instead to suppress the information from farmers, consumers and even Government advisors, such as English Nature.
Greenpeace believe that the Government has failed to acknowledge the need for action on this issue and offer guidance to farmers who have planted this year or last - who now have fertile GM 'volunteer' plants in their fields. Equally the Food Standards Agency, which has its first public meeting this week, should face questions on its failure to take action on behalf of the consumer.
Sarah North said, "It's chaos. No Government department - not MAFF, not the DETR, not the new Food Standards Agency - has given directions on issues such as removing crops, monitoring fields, testing oil mills, recalling or testing existing rape products, prosecution, compensation or even information for farmers. There is no halt on seed imports, no testing of existing seed stocks, no meaningful information provided to consumers or supermarkets nor requirements for labelling at any stage in the food chain".
North continued, "The biotech industry have once again captured and muzzled the Government. I'm not surprised that farmers are taking action into their own hands. The Government has completely failed to instruct them on what action to take and failed to support calls for full compensation. While supermarkets, processors and consumers are already stating that they will not touch this crop, farmers are being left with a product they can't sell and no compensation from Government. The implications of this could be felt by farmers for many years to come. The Government can no longer stick their heads in the sand and hope this will just go away - they must act quickly and get these crops out of the ground."
Notes to editors:
The contamination is thought to have happened by cross-pollination to a batch of conventional hybrid Canola seed sold as Hyola 38, Hyola 330 and Hyola 401. The GM variety is Monsanto's RT73 (also known as GT73) and resistant to Monsanto's herbicide Roundup.
In the UK it is believed that 500 - 600 farms have been affected by 22.5 tonnes of contaminated seed. This may amount to up to 34000 acres (13,700 hectares). Last year 22,500 acres were planted and this year it has probably been used on 12000 acres. In Sweden 500ha of the contaminated rape was sown, In Germany 300ha and in France 600ha.
Although the Government has stated that the GM seed is 'male sterile' it is now known that its female parts will be pollinated by other rape plants in the field and still produce a seed (which will be both fertile and GM). These seeds, if allowed to set, can stay in the soil up to 8 years. Farmers who planted the seed in 1999 will now be faced with the problem of fertile, GM volunteer plants in their fields.
The Swedish Board of Agriculture circulated a letter of consultation to various interested authorities and organisations on the 18 th May 2000 regarding issuing an injunction to the farmers in question to destroy the crop. The deadline for responses was today at 4pm. The Board intend to announce a decision this Thursday
Further information:
Contact:
Greenpeace press office on: 020 7865 8255
