Blair Faces Attack Over GM Comments
posted 28th Feb 00

The PM of Britain, Tony Blair, will be at the centre of a new storm over GM foods this week as scientists protest against a claim by the Prime Minister that the products could be harmful to human health. In sharp contrast to his previous comment that he would be happy to eat GM foods (see article below), Mr Blair said yesterday that he understood the concerns both of environmentalists and the "safe food" lobby.

His remarks have already been attacked by leading scientists who are meeting in Edinburgh this week for a conference on genetically modified crops. The GM foods issue was heightened further yesterday as protesters celebrated victory in the battle to prevent a ship carrying GM soya from docking in Liverpool. The ship, the US bulk carrier Iolcos Grace, set sail again with its 60,000-ton cargo after five activists climbed aboard on Friday and barricaded themselves into the anchor chamber. Mr Blair said there was "cause for legitimate public concern" and that the Government was proceeding "very cautiously indeed". He added: "There's no doubt that there is potential for harm, both in terms of human safety and in the diversity of our environment, from GM food and crops." His comment, in an article in The Independent on Sunday, drew an angry reaction from one Labour MP, who said it had little basis in science.

Ian Gibson, MP for Norwich and a member of the Science and Technology Select Committee, said Americans had been eating GM foods for at least 15 years with no noticeable ill-effects. "Unless Tony has been doing experiments in his spare time, there is no evidence, scientifically, that any GM food causes harm to human health," he said. Scientists at this week's meeting would be bound to react with anger, he said. "I think scientists will feel the Government isn't necessarily on their side. They will ask: Where is the evidence is that it is harmful to people?" Scientists are not known for their political or social skills, most obviously lacking in the way nuclear energy was misdealt with.

Scientists seem to be out of touch yet again in not seeing that the ban the bomb movement of the 20th Century has been superceded by a ban the g-bomb of the 21st. Michael Meacher, UK Environment minister, welcomed Mr Blair's statement but denied it was a major change of policy. "I am pleased, of course, but I am not surprised," he said in a radio interview. "Nothing has changed. I have said many times that we have to proceed very carefully. I think the Government has been listening to public opinion." Environmental groups also welcomed Mr Blair's apparent change of stance. Charles Secrett, executive director of Friends of the Earth, said the statement marked a fundamental change of policy. "At long last Mr Blair is listening to the public, who have made it perfectly clear that they don't want GM food on their plates or GM crops in their fields," he said.

NZ Labour Government has yet to make a stand. How US put pressure on Blair over GM food.

President Clinton was briefed to put intensive pressure on Tony Blair to open up Britain and Europe to US genetically modified food and crops during private talks at the Downing Street summit in 1998. And within 24 hours of US protests, Britain had acted to modify proposals to try to open the way for more GM food being sold in Britain and the rest of the European Union.

The approach, which was never made public, was timed for three separate meetings - two in Downing Street's state dining room, and at Dunbar Court in the foreign office, at the EU summit on May 18. Documents released to the Guardian newspaper under the US freedom of information act reveal President Clinton was briefed to warn Mr Blair - who then held the EU presidency - that "the EU's slow and non-transparent approval process for genetically modified organisms has cost US exporters hundreds of millions in lost sales." It goes on: "In the spirit of increased US-EU regulatory cooperation, we urge the EU to take immediate action to ensure that these products receive a timely review." Papers for the meeting show the same complaints were put to President Jacques Santer, then head of the European Commission, and Sir Leon Brittan, then EU foreign affairs commissioner.

The papers show more detailed complaints were put to Margaret Beckett, then trade secretary, and Robin Cook, the foreign secretary, by William Daley, the US trade secretary, and Madeleine Albright, the US secretary of state, at meetings in the foreign office and Downing Street that morning. Participating in the talks were the co-chairmen of the Transatlantic Business Dialogue - a lobbying organisation - Lodewijk de Vink, chief executive of Warner-Lambert (now Time-Warner), the US international media company, and Juergen Schrempp, chief executive of Daimler-Benz, the car makers, who back deregulation of European-US trade. The papers show that not only did the US attack the EU over the slow approval of GM crops but it criticised the labelling of GM foods. The brief reads: "Differences among member states over labelling have been an impediment to reforming the approval process.

We will be watching the commission's efforts to implement its new guidelines for labelling and we hope the EU can now move quickly to complete review of the products in the pipeline. "That said, the US sees no reason to label a product simply because it has been genetically engineered. Mandatory labelling of GMOs should be based on sound science." The next day the Financial Times reported that the UK presidency had brought forward proposals to scrap plans for labelling food saying "it may contain GM ingredients" which had created an impasse with national governments. The UK government - in line with US policy - proposed to limit the products that could be labelled as containing US soya bean derivatives..