agriculture

Greenpeace today welcomed a call by the National Farmers Union of Canada for "a moratorium on the production, importation, distribution, and sale of GM food".

Charlie Kronick, Greenpeace GM Campaigner said, "For the last 4 years, politicians and the NFU in the UK have said that if we fail to adopt GM crops that we'll lose out to our North American rivals. As the Canadian NFU has so clearly identified the environmental and economic drawbacks of GM, their call for a ban on GM foods sets exactly the kind of example that farmers, food producers and politicians should follow in this country".

This morning Greenpeace delivered three tonnes of GM free turkey feed to the headquarters of Bernard Matthews.

Despite massive public rejection of GM food (1), GM is still sneaking into the UK and being fed to animals. Bernard Matthews is one of a number of top UK food companies which continue to use GM animal feed in the production of their food products. These companies claim that it is impossible to buy GM free animal feed.

Greenpeace today wrote to the Government informing them that, following legal opinion, it considers the planting of this winter's farm scale trials of GM oil seed rape (OSR) unlawful. The letter has been sent John Prescott, Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions and to Nick Brown, Minister for Agriculture [1].

Greenpeace today attacked as irresponsible Government plans to plough ahead with open air GM trials despite the knowledge that GM pollen will inevitably contaminate surrounding countryside.

The Government announced 25 new sites to trial winter oil seed rape engineered to be resistant to the herbicide glufosinate ammonium, which is ordinarily banned for winter use. The announcement coincides with the release of a House of Commons Agriculture Select Committee report on the cross-contamination of non-GM crops by GM pollen in Canada earlier this year.

In response to today's announcement by Advanta seeds that they will be compensating farmers for supplying them with GM contaminated oil seed rape seeds Greenpeace UK GM Campaigner Andy Tait said,

"We are delighted by Advanta's announcement that they will compensate farmers who pull up their GM contaminated rape crops. It's a shame that it took over a month of bungling and dithering by both Advanta and the Government, and the threat of legal proceedings from Greenpeace, before they finally agreed to do the right thing,

Protesters uproot a crop of GM maize in Norfolk. The government has announced an 800 per cent increase in farm scale trials

Greenpeace today accused the Government of genetic tyranny as the DETR announced an 800% increase in the number of 'farm scale trial' sites for genetically modified crops.

Peter Melchett, Executive Director of Greenpeace in the UK, said, "This is a potential tragedy for the environment. Britain will be bombarded with GM pollen with no regard for wildlife, the public or GM-free farmers. The whole process has been nothing short of genetic tyranny with an almost complete absence of public consultation".

Greenpeace will be attending the forthcoming conference organised by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD on the health aspects of genetically modified (GM) food, which is taking place in Edinburgh from 28 Feb - 1 March. 

Greenpeace International representative Benny Haerlin 1 will be on a panel with Professor Gordon Conway of the Rockerfeller Foundation on the Monday of the conference. Doug Parr, Greenpeace UK's Chief Scientific Advisor will also be attending the conference as a delegate.

Greenpeace has concerns about potential bias at the conference towards pro-GM scientists and organisations.