Using a litany of lame and hackneyed justifications British Environment Minister Owen Paterson gave the GM industry a big boost yesterday by stating that the UK was prepared to “lead the World” in implementing a more relaxed regulatory framework for GM experimentation. Clearly, following the recent G8 summit US corporations and politicians have decided that what’s needed in Europe is a compliant mouthpiece to act in their stead.
The statement elicited a number of reactions from some wiser heads and even a stinging rebuttal from Joanna Blythman in the Daily Mail, no less. Below are a few highlights:
“Owen Paterson’s GM dream will make it harder to feed the world. The British Government constantly claim that GM crops are just one tool in the toolbox for the future of farming. In fact GM is the cuckoo in the nest. It drives out and destroys the systems that international scientists agree we need to feed the world. We need farming that helps poorer African and Asian farmers produce food, not farming that helps Bayer, Syngenta and Monsanto produce profits.”
~ Peter Melchett, Soil Association Policy Director
“Paterson remains blinkered by the unfulfilled promises of GM crops. GM technologies have consistently under-performed, despite claims from the biotech industry. Where GM crops have been planted they are locking farmers into buying inputs and costly seed, while encouraging resistant weeds and insects and not delivering the increased yields as promised. The main causes of hunger – poverty and global inequalities in the distribution of food cannot be resolved by GM crops,”
~ Mike Childs, Friends of the Earth
“Paterson appears to [ignore] any science not peddled by big corporations. Only industry-funded research shows any benefits from GM crops, which do not increase yields and are having harmful effects on the environment in North and South America,”
~ Helen Wallace, director of GeneWatch UK
“Paterson should be asking what works rather than blindly following agribusiness propaganda. The international consortium of research centres …. has used non-GM techniques to produce dozens of varieties of drought-tolerant maize, increasing African farmers’ yields by 20 to 30%. A host of other successes include blight-resistant potatoes and crops enriched with vitamin A, iron and other essential nutrients.”
Doug Parr, chief scientist, Greenpeace UK
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