April 19, 2000 / PA News / Amanda Brown, Environment Correspondent, PA News
Director of the Soil Association Patrick Holden was, according to this
story, cited as asking U.K. Environment Minister Michael Meacher today to
back an action plan to protect organic crops from GM pollution because the
current measures fail to give any consideration to the location of GM trial
sites in relation to neighbouring organic farmers, adding, "The industry
based body SCIMAC have completely failed to protect organic farmers from GM
pollution because of the failure to give prior notification of intended GM
trial crop locations and the inadequate separation distances between GM and
organic crops. We are seeking to secure, as a matter of the utmost urgency,
the maximum number of safeguards possible in order to limit any
contamination to GM free organic crops. Foremost of these is a pledge to
destroy any trial plots which threaten the certification status of
registered organic producers.
The sheer scale of this year's field scale trial plots substantially
increases the risk of contamination to any farmer wishing to grow GM free
crops. Until these trials are formally withdrawn from UK agriculture, the
Soil Association is therefore asking the government to replace SCIMAC
'voluntary' procedures with a new independent advisory committee backed by
legally binding enforcement procedures."
(posted without permission)
