Greens on the attack

17 August 1999

Greens on the attack

ENVIRONMENTAL activists are on the offensive in the pages of The Daily Telegraph and The Guardian.

In the Telegraphs letters column, a writer from the Soil Association asserts – not surprisingly – that consumer confidence in organically produced food is growing.

In The Guardian, the policy and campaigns director of Friends of the Earth gets a prime spot in the newspaper to condemn the World Trade Organisation (WTO) for acting at the behest of multinationals in several recent cases.

The author refers to the recent adjudication by the WTO on Europes special import arrangement of Caribbean bananas.

He also refers to Europes refusal to accept hormone-treated beef from the USA, as well as the impending battle over genetically modified (GM) crops.

The author suggest that, in the case of hormone-treated beef “even public safety is under threat from corporate muscle”, while the furore over the European Unions moratorium on GM crops is being challenged by the USA “to promote the interests of Monsanto”.

• Organic set to grow and grow, FWi, yesterday (16 August, 1999)
• GM to spark another trade war, FWi, 12 August, 1999
• US is the real enemy, Farmers Weekly, 04 June, 1999
• USA names EU targets in hormone-beef war, FWi, 26 March, 1999
• Trade war escalates over bananas, FWi, 05 March, 1999
• The Daily Telegraph 17/08/99 page 17 (Letters)