press releases

Committee will decide on next round of GM plantings

The Scientific Steering Committee (SSC) meets tomorrow morning (10/3/00) at the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR) to agree the national programme of GM crop trials for 2000.

Greenpeace Arctic ice camp

Two Greenpeace volunteers and a British photographer were arrested last night attempting to expose oil company BP Amoco's destruction of the Arctic. The three were documenting BP Amoco's Arctic oil project when they were arrested by Alaska State troopers. The arrests occurred just before the arrival of a party of journalists invited by BP to visit the construction site of Northstar - the first offshore oilrig in the Alaskan Arctic Ocean.

Further information:
Contact:
Greenpeace Press Office on 020 7865 8255

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".

Swiss nuclear regulatory officials are today visiting British Nuclear Fuels Ltd's (BNFL) Sellafield site in north-west England, to check on safety data for nuclear fuel exported to Switzerland. 

The visit follows today's reported resignation of BNFL chief executive John Taylor, following the scandal surrounding the falsification of nuclear fuel safety data for plutonium uranium oxide (MOX) fuel sent to Japan and Germany. Switzerland is the only customer continuing to use BNFL MOX fuel.

Greenpeace nuclear campaigner Helen Wallace said, "BNFL's plutonium business is dangerous, polluting and unnecessary whoever is at the helm. A new captain alone cannot save a ship that is heading for the rocks. The Government must chart a new course for BNFL by ending Britain's plutonium trade for good."

Greenpeace volunteers have set up an ice camp on the frozen Arctic Ocean to investigate and monitor the construction of BP Amoco's 'Northstar', the first offshore oil rig to be built in the Alaskan Arctic. Equipped with polar survival gear and communications equipment, the eight volunteers, braving temperatures of minus 42 C, set up camp just one mile from the controversial Northstar site. The camp was completed early this morning (Monday). 

Due to the extreme Arctic winter, the ice camp, which consists of two survival huts powered by five wind turbines, took over two weeks to deploy. The volunteers used snow machines to travel to a temporary site seven miles from the camp, where they spent 15 days living in tents, preparing a runway for a supply plane. A parachutist helped guide the plane in to land. The supplies were then shuttled out on snowmobiles to the final camp, one mile from BP's Northstar site.

Speaking from the camp, Dan Ritzman, Greenpeace climate campaigner said,
"We're here to highlight the threat BP poses to the future of the Arctic. Our camp is on the frontline of global warming - the Arctic is heating up faster than anywhere else on the planet. The ice is melting, polar bears are starving yet BP is digging for new oil which will only make the problem worse. BP's customers would be shocked to see what the company is trying do out here."

BP Amoco's Northstar will speed up the effects of climate change, which is having a devastating effect on the Western Arctic. Polar bears are already starving as the Arctic ice pack on which they hunt melts away. Overall ice thickness has already declined by 40% and an area of ice bigger than Wales disappears every year.

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.

Greenpeace campaign director, John Sauven said

"Tony Blair's change of tone on GM is a late but welcome recognition that the vast majority of the public have rejected GM. On Friday, Greenpeace successfully blocked a cargo of GM animal feed from being unloaded at Liverpool docks. GM animal feed is a massive source of genetic pollution, which threatens the environment and could have effects on both animal and human health.

"It's now time for Tony Blair to follow his words with action. Greenpeace has called on the Government to ban GM animal feed imports, which are legally suspect, and to stop all further GM field trials."

The five Greenpeace volunteers, who were arrested on Saturday for stopping the cargo of GM animal feed, have been bailed without charge.

Further information:
Contact:
Greenpeace press office on: 020 7865 8255

Five Greenpeace volunteers were arrested at 1am this morning (Saturday) after successfully occupying the bulk carrier 'Ioclos Grace' for seventeen hours. The vessel carrying 60,000 tonnes of GM soya owned by US grain exporter Cargill, is bound for a processing mill at Gladstone Docks, Liverpool. The ship is currently anchored off the north coast of Wales.

Police used bolt cutters to remove three of the volunteers who had barricaded themselves into the anchor chain locker. The five volunteers, all from the UK are Kate Davison, Richard Watson, Al Baker, Amber Whitehouse and Andy Broadley.

Greenpeace today, successfully intercepted and is still occupying after 12 hours, the bulk carrier 'Iolcos Grace', which is carrying up to sixty thousand tonnes of genetically modified soya into Britain.

US grain exporter Cargill, who owns the cargo has said today that "genetically modified soyabeans are fully regulated and have been approved for safe use in food and feed in the UK and the rest of the EU since 1996."

At 7.40am, Greenpeace successfully intercepted the bulk carrier Iolcos Grace believed to be carrying up to sixty thousand tonnes of genetically modified soya into Britain. The vessel was boarded by Greenpeace volunteers off the coast of Anglesey in North Wales. Six Greenpeace volunteers are still in position on the vessel, preventing further movement, while the organisation attempts to persuade the owners of the cargo - the US agribusiness giant Cargill - to return the GM soya to the United States.

The action by Greenpeace is part of a campaign to prevent genetically modified crops from being imported into the UK. The GM soya will mostly be used for animal feed, which will end up in meat and dairy products for human consumption. The recent agreement of the Biosafety Protocol in Montreal last month means that governments can now refuse to accept imports of GM crops on the basis of the 'precautionary principle'. Greenpeace calls for an end to GM imports because of uncertainties over the effects of GM materials on human health and the environment.

The action by Greenpeace is part of a campaign to prevent genetically modified crops from being imported into the UK. The GM soya will mostly be used for animal feed, which will end up in meat and dairy products for human consumption. The recent agreement of the Biosafety Protocol in Montreal last month means that governments can now refuse to accept imports of GM crops on the basis of the 'precautionary principle'. Greenpeace calls for an end to GM imports because of uncertainties over the effects of GM materials on human health and the environment.

Major supermarket chains in the UK are already going GM-free and rejecting animal products fed on GM crops. This week Iceland announced that it would be selling only GM-free animal products from September 1 s t . Other supermarkets like Tesco have also announced their intention remove GM animal feed from their products. Yesterday Carrefour, the second largest supermarket chain in the world, also announced that it is excluding GM animal feed from all its meat products in response to customer concerns.