NFU slams ministers GM comment
14 June 2000
NFU slams ministers GM comment
by Donald MacPhail
THE National Farmers Union has hit out at the senior government minister who said contamination could not be stopped from genetically modified crops.
Environment minister Michael Meacher said cross-pollination from GM crops could occur whatever the distance between GM trial sites and conventional crops.
He told MPs in the House of Commons: “It is false to pretend that there is any distance which is going to prevent some contamination.
“The question is how we can absolutely minimise that to a level which is acceptable to those buying the product.”
The comment received widespread coverage and was seized on by anti-GM campaigners who claim GM sites are inadequately separated from other crops.
In at least one newspaper, a spokesman for Friends of the Earth was quoted as saying that Mr Meacher had let a large, yowling cat out of the bag.
But Bob Fiddaman, the National Farmers Union representative on the pro-GM industry body SCIMAC, said the minister had chosen his words badly.
Mr Fiddaman said: “I think the minister was more than a little insensitive in what he said. He could and should have made a better public statement.”
He added: “I hope this statement wont be damaging to the trials, because the separation distances used are based on 35 years of science.”
Mr Fiddman, who himself is hosting a GM trial, did not dispute that small amounts of pollen could travel further than existing isolation distances.
But SCIMAC, which is partly funded by the companies behind GM crops, argues that pollen might travel long distances but is unlikely to cross-pollinate.
“There is nowhere in the real world where there cant be some pollen movement, but it is the significance of that movement which is important,” said Mr Fiddaman.
The SCIMAC representative also dismissed claims by environmentalists Greenpeace that the trials were on the verge of collapse.
Withdrawals have left only 12 test sites for oilseed rape and maize – the lowest number recommended by the governments scientific steering committee.
But Mr Fiddaman said they trials would still yield valuable results as they were representative of different areas of the country.
“Id rather have 12 sites across the country than 25 in East Anglia.