1.Scandal of Labour's GM go-ahead
2.EU ag minister says no need for moratorium, predicts GM will become the normal way to breed seeds
3.Welsh First Minister indicates Wales will stay GM free
4.GM DECISIONS SHOULD NOT BE MADE BEHIND CLOSED DOORS
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1.Scandal of Labour's GM go-ahead
Wednesday February 11, 2004
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/gmdebate/Story/0,2763,1145366,00.html
In the public debate, GM Nation, involving 650 meetings and responses from 37,000 people, only 2% said they found GM crops completely acceptable. Now we read that "the government believes Europe should be opened to GM imports and cultivation". Mr Blair assures us his government is in "listening mode". You could have fooled me.
Derek Gillard, Oxford
I find it incredible that the government is prepared to give the go-ahead for GM maize to be planted before it has brought forward any legal framework (Report, February 9). Though sceptical of GM technology myself, I cannot understand how even the most pro-GM minister could permit these new crops without laws to prevent contamination. Ministers say consumers and farmers should be able to choose whether to eat (or grow) GM foods. But without laws setting separation distances between GM and non-GM crops, without ensuring the use of separate machinery and storage to prevent mixing of GM and non-GM seeds, and with out requiring GM-farmers to control any plants growing outside the fields they plant, it is inevitable that crops will mix and all choice will be lost.
We also need a legal framework to protect farmers who find GM traits have contaminated their crop. They would certainly find their produce rejected by the major UK retailers, which know their customers will not buy GM.
The EU made it clear last summer that it is the government's responsibility to bring forward such laws for the UK. As ministers failed to do this in the Queen's speech, I have decided to bring forward a bill. The genetically modified organisms bill will be debated in the Commons in March. To have any chance of protecting consumers' rights to choose whether or not they want GM food, the government must support it.
Gregory Barker MP Con, Bexhill and Battle
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2. Fischler says no need for moratorium, predicts GM will become the normal way to breed seeds
http://society.guardian.co.uk/societyguardian/story/0,7843,1144857,00.html
Eco Sounding
John Vidal
Wednesday February 11, 2004
The Guardian
Breeding dissent
Franz Fischler, EU agriculture commissioner, was in Oxford last week to defend the motion "Free trade is fair trade" at the Oxford Union. Some students were predictably unimpressed. When asked what he thought of Britain being on the point of authorising the growing of GM maize, Fischler said: "I don't see any reason any more for a moratorium. We are at the beginning of a new technology ... I think this will become more and more the normal way to breed new varieties."
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GM crops pledge by Rhodri
Feb 11 2004
The Western Mail
http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0600uk/content_objectid=13938097_method=full_siteid=50082_headline=-GM-crops-pledge-by-Rhodri-name_page.html
FIRST Minister Rhodri Morgan last night gave the clearest signal yet that Wales will be a GM-free zone. He vowed that the National Assembly would do all that was legally possible to restrict genetically modified crops in Wales.
Mr Morgan said, "The National Assembly is committed to approving the most restrictive approach allowed by EU and UK legislation." The Labour leader added however that it was also the duty of the Assembly to ensure the public had a "true freedom of choice".
He added, "With GM there is a wide variety of views within every party. The important issue is reserving consumer choice." Mr Morgan said that choice was important but preventing contamination and cross pollination of organic crops was equally as important.
Liberal Democrat AM Mick Bates called for the Assembly to ensure that the co-existence of GM crops and organic foods was "not an option".
Mr Morgan repeated that it was a matter of doing what UK and EU legislation allowed to prevent organic crops being polluted by GM crops.
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4.GM DECISIONS SHOULD NOT BE MADE BEHIND CLOSED DOORS - GEORGE
Liberal Democrats: 10/02/2004
Commenting on reports that the Government are on the verge of making a policy decision on GM, Andrew George MP, Liberal Democrat Shadow Food and Rural Affairs Secretary said:
"Given public, political and environmental concerns about GM, it would be the height of irresponsibility for the Government not to give MPs the opportunity to debate what could be a momentous and irreversible decision.
"DEFRA are taking incremental steps towards backing GM and once again look like eroding public confidence in the political process.
"Some key decisions have already been taken. An unelected quango, the Food Standards Agency, voted in Brussels last December to approve GM maize for importation to be processed for food.
"Then, in January, DEFRA recommended to the EU that GM rice should be approved for the same purpose.
"The Government are trying to sleep-walk the country into acceptance of GMs without a single debate in Government time.
"They must stop their policy of taking decisions behind our backs and give us open Government, a substantive motion and a vote in the House."
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