press releases

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,

Greenpeace gives Government seven day deadline before court action

Greenpeace today wrote to Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott and Agriculture Minister Nick Brown advising them that any sale of the genetically modified (GM) contaminated rape released by Advanta would constitute an illegal act under UK and European GM regulations.

Greenpeace has set a seven day deadline for the Government to inform affected farmers of the illegality of selling the contaminated rape, after which Greenpeace will take the UK Government to court.

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.

Government claims over 'sterile' crops proved false

Greenpeace today called on the Government to immediately recall and destroy genetically modified oil seed rape seeds mistakenly planted across Britain.

The call came as evidence emerged that the GM seeds are not 'male sterile' as claimed by Government.

Greenpeace today intensified its campaign to put an end to Lapeyre's role in ancient forest destruction. The executive director of Greenpeace France, Bruno Rebelle, attended the annual shareholders meeting of the French home improvement company and questioned Lapeyre's board members about the company's part in destroying the Amazon forest as well as its overall timber purchasing policies from destructive logging operations in ancient forest regions.

Greenpeace is today towing a raft of 116 illegal logs from a remote location on the Jurua River in Brazil's Amazonas State at the request of Brazil's Environmental Agency, IBAMA. Now bound for the Villages of Carauari, the logs were first discovered during a routine flight of Greenpeace's Cessna aircraft on Monday, May 8th. The following day Greenpeace activists attempted to relocate the raft, but it had disappeared. It was later found hidden in a small tributary of the Jurua River and turned over to IBAMA.

Greenpeace action against the world's tallest toxic waste incinerator

Four Greenpeace campaigners face a further ten days in a Tokyo jail after being arrested on Tuesday 9th May for hanging a banner from an incinerator.

Greenpeace today welcomed the news that British Energy, which manages most of the UK's nuclear power plants, has called for an end to nuclear reprocessing at British Nuclear Fuels' Sellafield plant

The Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior was raided today at 08h10 local time by the Japanese Police. The Japanese authorities were looking for evidence against the four Greenpeace activists arrested on Tuesday after they had climbed the tower of the world's tallest incinerator complex in Toshima Ward, in Tokyo, to demand an end to waste incineration. The police made a demand to search the ship thoroughly, including the computer data, the ship's logbook and the crew's personal belongings.

A court date has now been confirmed for the 2nd Lyng trial. The 28 defendants are charged with Criminal Damage after being cleared of theft at the first hearing. The trial will start on September 4th and is expected to last for 2 weeks.

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