Consumers will blame farmers for GM woes

29 April 1999

Consumers will blame farmers for GM woes

By Vicky Houchin

CONSUMERS will blame farmers rather than the government, supermarkets or biotechnology companies if genetically modified (GM) crops fail, it was claimed yesterday.

Producers would pay the price of any redress if GM crops went wrong, said Jeanette Longfield, group co-ordinator for Sustain, the pressure group for sustainable farming.

“Look what happened with BSE,” she said told delegates at the National Association of British and Irish Millers conference in Cambridgeshire.

Ms Longfield said there was a small risk to human health from eating GM food and questioned whether it was a risk worth taking at all.