press releases

Following the publication today, Monday 10 September of a review by the Government's advisory body for the farm scale trials of GM crops, Greenpeace today renewed its call for the programme to be cancelled. The report identifies gaps in scientific research as well as political, ethical and commercial issues which need to be resolved before the commercial growing of GM crops in Britain should begin.

The report by the Agriculture and Environment Biotechnology Commission entitled 'Crops on trial' makes ten recommendations including: a wider debate on GM crops regarding the ethics of genetic modification; preserving the ability of organic growers to retain their organic status; preserving consumer choice for food free from GM contamination including organic foods; identifying adequate separation distances between GM crops and non GM crops.

Dr Doug Parr, Chief Scientific Advisor Greenpeace, said '"We've always felt that these trials were a fig leaf to cover the Government's embarrassment at having failed to be in tune with legitimate public concerns. The AEBC report points out that there are unanswered questions about ethics, risk and uncertainties, agricultural policy, the effects on organic farming, consumers right to choose and the social and economic impacts associated with potential commercialisation of CM crops. If the Government wants to show that it isn't in the pocket of the biotech giants it needs to hold this wide debate and stop the farm-scale trials programme "

Editors notes:
(1) Paragraph 25 of the report says 'Whilst the FSE (Farm Scale Evaluations) are expected to produce useful data which can contribute to the decision about weather or not the crops involved should be commercialised, we are clear that they are not a sufficient condition for reaching those decisions'.

Further information:
Contact:
Greenpeace press office: 0207 865 8255

Open field trials of genetically modified (GM) rice containing human genes are being carried out in the heart of the California's traditional rice growing region, according to Greenpeace. The experiment is being carried out to produce pharmaceuticals.

Volunteers from the international environmental group marked out the field with giant syringes to highlight the risk of growing drug-producing GM crops outdoors. No special effort to protect the environment and the food chain had been made.

Greenpeace today accused the world's governments of failing to fulfil their commitment to reduce world hunger (1) while ignoring the methods of agriculture that are environmentally sound and proven. Nutritious, high-yielding crops are already being grown. It is the commercial power and political influence of the chemical companies promoting GM farming that prevent proper investment in these real solutions.

Greenpeace's recently appointed Executive Director, Gerd Leipold, today criticised President George W. Bush for putting the world's future at risk with a "truly astonishing policy path that could undo so much progress in environmental protection and world peace".

Speaking at the launch of the organisation's Annual Report, Dr. Gerd Leipold said that in pursuing the Star Wars (missile defence) programme, rejecting the Kyoto climate change agreement and threatening to open the Alaskan Arctic Wildlife Reserve to oil exploitation, President Bush was failing to protect the environment to satisfy his corporate supporters.

New doubt is cast today on Monsanto's genetically modified soya, as research is for the first time published in a peer-reviewed science journal, showing further unknown 'gene fragments' in the soya [1].

Seventeen people, three of whom are British Citizens, known as the 'Star Wars 17' were formally charged at a court hearing in the United States on Monday 13th August. Outside the US Embassy in London on the same day, seventeen people dressed in US prison clothing and handcuffed together, confronted the US authorities holding a "Stop Star Wars not Peaceful Protest" banner.

The 'Star Wars 17' face charges that carry sentences of up to six years in prison, following a peaceful Greenpeace protest which delayed a test of President Bush's Star Wars missile system in July(1).

Fifteen Greenpeace volunteers and two freelance journalists will go on trial in Los Angeles in just over a months' time. All seventeen are facing charges of conspiracy which could lead to jail terms of up to six years, after the delay in the Star wars missile test launch at Vandenberg Air Forcer Base in California.

The charges have been levelled against the 15 volunteers as well as the 2 journalists, even though the pair were simply documenting the peaceful protest. The trial date has been set for September 25th 2001.

Greenpeace and People Against Wylfa B (PAWB) have condemned the decision by the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) to allow BNFL to restart Wylfa nuclear power station today [1]. Greenpeace and PAWB are calling for the station to be closed permanently on safety grounds. The NII decision, taken in secret, has failed to assess properly the potential dangers of restarting the station.

The reactors were closed in April 2000 following the discovery of defects in welds in the reactor pressure vessels. The NII was concerned that the welds could break open, releasing radioactive contents from the reactor. They asked BNFL to fit 'restraints' to the outside of the pressure vessel to limit radioactive releases if the welds did break open. The welds themselves have not been repaired.

On Monday 30th July 2001, Greenpeace erected a large concrete sculpture of Brazil's federal constitution in front the of the Ministry of Agriculture in Brasilia to remind Minister Marcus Vinicius Pratini de Moraes that he is not legally authorised to approve the commercial growing of Monsanto's genetically modified (GM) Roundup-Ready soybeans. The Minister had announced last week that he would issue a permit for such growing in due time before Brazil's planting season in September 2001.

As the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting ended in London today, Greenpeace stressed that Japanese vote buying (1) has prevented vital steps from being taken to protect the world's remaining whale populations, such as the creation of South Pacific and South Atlantic whale sanctuaries. Greenpeace also warned that the threats posed to all whale populations by man- made environmental degradation of the oceans are being grossly under estimated. (2)