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.
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