Posted on 20-8-2002

Labour, `Let Them Eat Broccoli'
by Jon Carapiet

Just what will it take to persuade the Government that it is disastrously
wrong over genetically modified crops and foods? Scarcely a week goes by
without devastating new evidence emerging of threats to health and the
environment, or without the disclosure of breathtaking bungles by the GM
companies or the regulatory authorities. Last week alone two powerful new
studies showed that genes from the crops are escaping to create
"superweeds", and "a very serious breach of regulations" emerged when
unauthorised GM seeds were sown in field trials in each of the past three
years. Today we report another alarming development in the controversial
trials, where stubble from GM oilseed rape sprouted again and flowered on
four test sites. Yet Mr Blair and his ministers continue with plans to
foist the technology on a hostile public.

Every assurance trotted out by the industry, and its fans in the
Government, now lies in ruins. They said that the technology would not
create superweeds: but report after report shows that they are emerging
where GM crops are grown widely and are "inevitable" here if commercial
cultivation begins. They said that GM and organic agriculture could
coexist; but a massive EU study - which Brussels tried to restrict to
"internal use only" - shows that the hugely popular chemical-free farming
would be forced out of business by GM contamination.

They said the technology would feed the Third World; but last week Zambia,
in the midst of the southern African famine, has refused to take GM food
aid, on the grounds that it is too dangerous. And they said it posed no
danger to health: but even the strongly pro-GM Royal Society now admits
there could be hazards in future. Last month research found that GM genes
could transfer from food to bacteria in the gut of people who eat it - just
a few weeks after the scientific establishment roundly condemned the
powerful BBC drama Fields of Gold for suggesting something similar.

The latest revelations of the bungled trials may be the most alarming of
all, because they explode official assurances about the effectiveness of
Britain's regulatory system. Ministers are fond of saying that it is the
most rigorous in the world. If that is true we really should be worried.
The GM inspectorate failed to spot the sowing of the unauthorised seeds
over three years; it came to light only when the company responsible,
Aventis, came clean. And both the inspectorate and Aventis were ignorant of
the reflowering stubble: they were informed about it by Friends of the
Earth after a local farmer contacted the group. Controls on GM foods are
even more scandalously perfunctory; products are just waved through as safe
on the assumption that they are "substantially equivalent" to their
conventional counterparts.