Melchett remanded over GM protest
28 July 1999
Melchett remanded over GM protest
LORD MELCHETT, the Greenpeace leader charged with damaging a field of trial genetically modified (GM) maize, was remanded in jail yesterday.
Norwich magistrates released 27 other protestors, but refused an application for bail made on Lord Melchetts behalf after he helped uproot the GM maize on Monday.
Simon Jenkins, a columnist in The Times, takes the Melchett case as the starting point to condemn the hysteria over GM crops.
The attack by environmental groups on three of the governments seven GM test sites reveal “Britain at its most illogical,” he writes.
The Independent reveals that 250 local authorities have now banned GM foods from school meals.
It is expected that nearly all nearly all schools and old peoples homes in England and Wales will serve GM-free meals by the end of the year.
But GM crop planting in the UK has not been deterred by the wave of protests. The Guardian reports that farm-scale trials of GM oilseed rape are set to rise, according to letters it between AgrEvo and the Department of the Environment.
- No bail for Melchett over GM protest, FWi, yesterday (27 July, 1999)
- The Times 28/07/99 page 1, page 2, page 18 (Comment)
- The Independent 28/07/99 page 6
- The Guardian 28/07/99 page 1, page 8, page 18, page 19 (Leader), page 4 (Society)
- The Daily Telegraph 28/07/99 page 1, page 27 (Editorial)