(L)Green Party campaigners Robert Wilkins, Sylvia Scarsbrook and Richard Perkins outside County Hall. (R) Caroline Lucas

GM-free Worcestershire campaign

In January 2004, Chris Lennard, Co-ordinator of the GM-free Worcestershire campaign, handed over a 1,000-signature petition to Worcestershire County Council. The petition called on the Council to:

• Ban GM crops on council land

• Ban GM foods in council services

• Apply under EU legislation to have GM crops excluded from Worcestershire, on a crop-by-crop basis.

Neighbouring County Councils in Shropshire and Warwickshire have signed up to the GM-free petition, as have many other local authorities up and down the UK, including LibDem/Green controlled Malvern Hills District Council. Conservative-controlled Worcestershire County Council have taken no action on the petition, and Worcestershire Green Party continues its campaign.

The commercial growing of GM crops is likely to cause environmental, social, economic and practical problems across the country, but the areas where the crops are grown will be worst affected.

On 18th April 2006, the Green Party Press Office reported that the EU has admitted having serious concerns over the safety and environmental impact of GM crops in a dossier of scientific evidence sent to World Trade Organisation investigators.

MEPs and green groups called for an immediate suspension of the use and sale of any GM crops after the report admitted there were 'large areas of uncertainty' as to the effects of GMOs on both human health and the environment, and that 'there simply is no way of ascertaining whether the introduction of GM crops has had any. .effect on human health'.

Caroline Lucas, South-East England's Green Party Euro-MP, said: "This latest evidence is absolutely shocking. Not only does it reveal the depth of uncertainty - and therefore potential risks - surrounding GM, it makes plain as day the unpalatable fact that the EU Commission has been well aware of these concerns whilst authorising new GM products for sale and growth."

Though the documents were presented to the WTO by EU officials in defence of their now-defunct de facto GM-ban, the EU has since approved seven new GM foods and 31 further varieties of Monsanto's GM maize.

The dossier was obtained following a Freedom of Information Act request by Friends of the Earth and can be viewed at www.foeeurope.org

Dr Lucas added: "This has the makings of a full-scale EU-wide food safety scandal and the European Commission must halt the sale and import of all GM crops and products in the EU until its fears over the crops' uncertain effects on health and the environment have been allayed."

Some background information:

Impact on local farmers and the local economy

Once GM crops are grown in an area, farmers growing conventional or organic crops could struggle. Pollen and seeds from GM crops could be spread by bees or the wind to nearby areas, and local farmers could find that their food can no longer be sold as non-GM, while organic farmers could lose their organic status.

New research continues to show the surprising distances pollen can travel – a Government sponsored study found that cross pollination of oilseed rape plants could occur over 26km.6 But with respect to coexistence the UK Government looks likely to support weak measures that could lead to widespread contamination of non- GM crops. Insurance companies are not willing to provide insurance cover for farmers considering growing GM crops, or non-GM farmers seeking to protect their business from GM contamination.7

In the US, Monsanto has been using heavy-handed investigations and ruthless prosecutions to sue farmers over the use of its GM seed, even where fields have been accidentally contaminated.8Children from Umid village living on the pipeline route

Impact on the local environment

If GM crops are grown in our area, the local environment may also suffer:

• The Government sponsored farmscale trials showed that in three of the four crops tested (beet, winter and spring oilseed rape), growing the GM crops with the associated weedkiller was more damaging to farmland wildlife than growing the conventional crop.9 Fewer beneficial plants and insects were found in the GM fields and the RSPB is concerned that depleting these food sources for farmland birds, such as the skylark, would have negative impacts on their already declining populations.10

• In the US, researchers have found that GM crops can pass genes to related plants, making stronger weeds, and in Canada GM oilseed rape weeds have appeared that are resistant to three herbicides.  In both cases, farmers might need to resort to more damaging chemicals to control the resistant weeds. In the UK, wild plants that cross-breed with oilseed rape and beet occur throughout the country.

• Protected plants found in arable areas could be threatened by the introduction of GM herbicide tolerant crops because of the indiscriminate weed killers used.

The public remains deeply opposed to GM crops and food.

• A Which? survey in 2004 showed that 61 per cent of people are concerned about the use of GM in food production.

• In the GM Nation? public debate in 2003, in-depth research suggested that when people in the general population become more engaged in GM issues, and choose to discover more about them, they harden their attitudes against GM.

• A number of local authorities have conducted their own research – Kent County Council found that 83 per cent of respondents were concerned about the potential negative impact of GM crops on the environment, and Shropshire County Council found 94 per cent of local people were against commercially grown GM crops.

Useful resources

www.gmofree-europe.org – GM-Free Europe website with an interactive map of GM-free areas in Europe, lots of campaign information and petitions to download

www.gmfreebritain.com – GM-Free Britain website

www.foe.co.uk/resource/reports/now_never.pdf – Now or Never: why you should make your area GM free

Contacts

We are grateful to the gm-free Britain campaign and to Friends of the Earth for much of the above information. For further information from Friends of the Earth, please contact:

Clare Oxborrow, GM Campaigner, on 020 7566 1716 or email clareo@foe.co.uk

Liz Wright, Campaign Assistant, on 0113 2428153 or email lizw@foe.co.uk

Friends of the Earth 26-28 Underwood Street London N1 7JQ Tel: 020 7490 1555 Fax 020 7490 0881 Email info@foe.co.uk Website www.foe.co.uk1