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Government to give go ahead for GM maize By John Deane, Chief Political Correspondent, PA News 19 February 2004 http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/environment/story.jsp?story=492836 The Independent The Government is to give permission for the first commercial cultivation of a genetically modified crop, according to cabinet committee papers leaked today. BBC2's Newsnight programme quoted leaked minutes of a 10 February meeting of the Cabinet Office ministerial sub-committee on biotechnology, which indicated that the decision to give approval to the sowing of GM maize on a commercial scale is imminent. The committee, according to the leaked minutes, agreed there should be a precautionary approach to GM crops, based on science, and sensitive to public opinion. Nevertheless it acknowledged that "the public was unlikely to be receptive". It suggested that "careful presentation" of the EU's focus on evidence-based decision-making could help, and that opposition might eventually be worn down by solid, authoritative scientific argument. Former environment minister Michael Meacher accused the Government of caving in to pressure from the US government and huge biotechnology firms. Mr Meacher told Newsnight last night: "I don't think that the Government has any moral, scientific or political authority whatsoever to take this decision. "If you look at the science, in the GM maize trials the conventional maize was sprayed with a chemical which has now been banned throughout the whole of the EU. So the comparison which was made in those trials is now invalid. "The Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment, which the Government relies on, says there should be new trials. The Government has refused. "There is public opinion, which is four to one against. "The issue of co-existence protocols, by which you protect non-GM farmers from contamination, there is no agreement on that. "Why is the Government going ahead? It is not because of the science, it is because of the Bush administration applying pressure, and because of companies like Monsanto who want to make a big profit bonanza out of cornering the world food supply. It is nothing to do with feeding the world." Mr Meacher added: "After Iraq, after tuition fees, after foundation hospitals, I do think that in this Big Conversation the Prime Minister has rightly launched, he should be listening to what the nation is saying." Liberal Democrat rural affairs spokesman Andrew George said in a statement: "This decision shows that the Government are treating people's concerns about GM with contempt, and skewing Parliamentary discussion in favour of biotech. If the public realised what was being decided in their name, there would be uproar. "Instead of coming to Parliament with a statement, they should be allowing MPs to debate a policy motion before making a decision with potentially harmful environmental effects. "Their plan to link the growing of crops in the UK with the future of developing world is a particularly cynical ploy." Last month, the current environment minister Elliot Morley said decisions on maize, beet and spring sown oil seed rape would be announced within weeks, after Whitehall had consulted the UK's devolved administrations. His comments came after the Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment (ACRE), a Government advisory body, concluded that farmers who grow genetically modified herbicide tolerant maize crops under strict rules would not see adverse effects on wildlife. The ACRE panel, which spent three months looking at the results of a three-year nationwide field scale trials of crops, warned that if GM beet and spring sown oil seed rape were to be grown, that would have adverse effects on arable weed populations and in turn on insects and birds. Mr Morley indicated that there was a comparatively strong case for cultivating maize, under strictly controlled conditions. But Mr Morley made clear that, as things stand, there is little prospect of GM beet and spring sown oil seed rape getting the go-ahead. And an independent report published today found the government's consultation exercise on GM crops may have seriously over-estimated the scale of public opposition. The official report on the GM Nation exercise, conducted last summer, concluded that more than four out of five people were against GM crops and that just 2 per cent would be prepared to eat GM foods. However, a team of academics from Cardiff University, the University of East Anglia and the Institute of Food Research, said the project had been over-hasty, under-resourced and "flawed in a number of important respects". It said that its own findings suggested that many people had yet to make up their minds about GM crops. A Mori poll for the UEA found that while 36 per cent opposed GM food, 13 per cent supported it and 39 per cent were neither for or against. Although 85 per cent agreed that not enough was known about the long-term effects on health of GM food, 45 per cent thought GM crops could hold future benefits for consumers and 56 per cent thought they could help developing nations. ************************************************************************************ Distributed through Cyber-Society-Live [CSL]: CSL is a moderated discussion list made up of people who are interested in the interdisciplinary academic study of Cyber Society in all its manifestations.To join the list please visit: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/cyber-society-live.html *************************************************************************************