UK minister attacks US pressure over GM crops
Date: 20-Aug-02
Country: UK
In an interview with the Independent newspaper, Meacher said he was sceptical of the benefits of GM and that any decisions to open up commercial planting of GM crops would be based on hard evidence.
"We are not going to be bounced into this by the Americans," Meacher told the newspaper.
Asked whether the United States was pressing for expanded GM production, Meacher said: "Well, you know there is. The Americans are very keen. The amount of prairies which have been cultivated with GM is colossal."
The UK government's farm-scale trials may not give an accurate picture of the impact GM crops may have on the environment, Meacher said.
"We are talking about the impact on plants, on invertebrates, on birds, on insects," he said. "...if you have general commercialisation you may get different effects over and above what these isolated fields will show."
The government was dealt a blow last week when it emerged that trial crops had been contaminated with unauthorised GM seeds.
The news sparked environmental campaigners' calls for an immediate end to the field testing of crops in Britain.
The Financial Times yesterday quoted the chief executive of U.S. biotechnology firm Monsanto, Hendrik Verfaillie, as saying it could take until at least 2005 for the company to gain regulatory approval in Europe or Brazil for its genetically modified products.
Public opinion in Europe, knocked by food safety scares such as mad cow disease in recent years, is wary about GM foods and there is a three-year de-facto ban in place on approvals of new gene-modified varieties.