Note the references to trials outside the UK and "projects in India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines and Africa". Where exactly are the trials happening? Do these countries have any relevant regulatory mechanisms? Are they also being conducted in secret? And if so, why?
Note also, despite over a million pounds of UK taxpayers money and nearly 5 million pounds of EU public monies having already been sunk into this bizarre and dangerous project, "MEPs in the ruling Socialist group have called for a significant increase in EU funding of GM fish research." Sounds like some serious questions need to be asked of MEPs as to who is supporting this and why.
Meanwhile, the DfID involvement again, as in Andhra Pradesh, points up Clare Short's cras support for the Blair's GMOs + globalisation agenda. According to Clare (item 2), "It is not right for Western governments and pressure groups to decide for them [the poor]."
But that's precisely what Clare and others in Western governments are doing, ie assuming that this is what the poor want. Yet when poor farmers and landless labourers in Andhra Pradesh were actually asked their opinion of Clare's DfID backed plans for them, they unanimously rejected them.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/gmdebate/Story/0,2763,518190,00.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/gmdebate/Story/0,2763,518147,00.html
http://members.tripod.com/~ngin/indfarm.htm
To let DfID know what you think of their irresponsible activities and lack of a mandate - email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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Concern over British trials of GM 'super fish'
By Severin Carrell
05 August 2001
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/environment/story.jsp?story=87122
A new breed of genetically modified, fast-growing "super fish" developed in Britain will be on sale around the world in as little as three years' time, scientists have predicted.
Geneticists at the University of Southampton believe they are close to proving that GM tilapia -- the world's second most popular fish for eating -- can be safely farmed without damaging the environment or other fish species.
The GM fish grow up to three times larger than normal after being bred with growth-hormone genes taken from chinook salmon as part of a 1.12m [pounds] programme funded by the Department for International Development (DfID).
The British research is running in parallel with a major multinational research programme funded by the European Commission, which is intended to override resistance from environmentalists and consumers by proving that GM fish is safe.
Government agencies such as English Nature and Scottish Natural Heritage have warned ministers that farming with fertile GM fish will inevitably lead to escapes and interbreeding with native species. That, in turn, could lead to new breeds of disease-resistant GM fish surviving in the wild.
The Independent on Sunday can reveal the Commission has spent nearly 7.5m euros (£4.6m) on 11 projects to develop fish such as tilapia, salmon, medaka and rainbow trout since the mid-1980s.
That research is expected to increase substantially. A group of geneticists, including scientists at Southampton, have now applied for EU grants to turn carnivorous salmon and trout into vegetarians to overcome another major objection to industrial-scale farms, as fish farming contributes to over-fishing at sea purely for fish food.
The DfID research steps up a gear early next year when the Southampton team holds trials in northern Thailand to prove its GM tilapia are fully sterile by mixing them with wild fish in a special self-contained facility.
If these trials succeed, UN experts believe British scientists will be among the first to offer low-cost GM fish for commercial farming in the Far East, the Indian subcontinent and possibly Africa.
The world's leading GM fish company, a US firm called AquaBounty, is expected to get approval from the US Food and Drug Administration to market fast-growing GM salmon next year. But the firm believes it will take until 2003 or 2004 before commercial farms are licensed.
Professor Norman Maclean, head of the Southampton research team, predicted his GM tilapia would be on sale in three to five years. However, it could take 10 years before food shortages and environmental problems with conventional fish farming would overcome consumer hostility.
The Commission insists it has no plans to support the commercial farming of GM fish, claiming the research is to ensure EU scientists can keep pace with global developments in the field. However, MEPs in the ruling Socialist group have called for a significant increase in EU funding of GM fish research.
Alan Simpson, Labour MP for Nottingham South and a leading critic of government support for GM technologies, said: "We should recoil in horror at this research. The ecological consequences of a mistake are so far-reaching we should not be continuing with trials without subjecting them to rigorous public scrutiny."
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Whitehall funds hush-hush production of GM fish
By Severin Carrell and Geoffrey Lean
01 April 2001
Independent on Sunday (UK)
Three government ministries are financing the development of genetically modified fish for the dinner table, The Independent on Sunday can reveal. They have already spent £2.6m on unpublicised British research to create fast-growing fish for human consumption despite warnings from official advisers that these will inevitably interbreed with wild species, with incalculable consequences. A further £457,000 has been spent by the European Commission in Britain.
The research focuses on fish such as carp and tilapia, a staple in Asia which is becoming increasingly popular in Britain. But the techniques will be soon applied to widely eaten species such as salmon and cod. The news comes at a time when consumers are increasingly turning to fish, as they become more anxious about the safety of meat. The research is being partly financed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food -- already under heavy attack for its bungling of the foot and mouth outbreak. It has funded several projects to develop GM fish, but yesterday refused to answer detailed questions on its research despite repeated promises of openness by the minister, Nick Brown.
The biggest spender is Clare Short's Department for International Development, which has given at least £2m to at least six projects to develop GM carp and tilapia in India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines and Africa.
Ms Short yesterday told the IoS that she wanted to help poor countries gain access to genetic technologies being exploited in the West. "It would be wrong to block research which might bring real benefits to the poor" she said. "It is not right for Western governments and pressure groups to decide for them."
The third ministry is the Department of Trade and Industry, which has spent at least £329,000 on research on carp, salmon, goldfish and zebra fish via the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council. The EC has funded tilapia programmes at Southampton University.
The IoS revelation will cause a new storm over Britain's food. Alan Simpson, a senior Labour MP, said: "Ministers have failed to learn the lessons of BSE and foot and mouth."
A source close to the Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment, the official GM watchdog, said he was very concerned. "Releasing transgenic native specimens would tend to be very, very high risk. One can be absolutely certain that GM farmed salmon and trout put in sea cages would escape, and in large numbers."
Kevin Dunion, director of Friends of the Earth Scotland, added: "If these GM fish crossbreed with natural stocks, no one knows what the ultimate consequence will be"
The research includes projects at Southampton and Stirling universities to create fast- growing strains of tilapia, based in part on controversial techniques developed by a US company to create GM salmon for fish farming. A/F Protein has applied for permission to market a salmon which grows four to six times faster than normal and claims to have orders for 15 million eggs of the modified fish.
The Southampton project has also involved trials of tilapia in Hungary. The fish are supposed to be sterilised to prevent breeding with their natural cousins, but Professor Neil Maclean admits that only 95 per cent were successfully neutered and that it was impossible to guarantee total sterility. But, he insisted: "Transgenic fish programmes will be a great improvement on the current exploitation of Atlantic salmon,".
Programmes also include:
* An £861,00 DFID project led by Stirling's institute of aquaculture, and the University of Wales, Swansea, to "genetically improve" carp, with scientists and governments in Bangladesh, India, and Vietnam
* Research on carp, salmon, goldfish and zebra fish at Southampton, Edinburgh and Aberdeen universities
* A Maff project at Southampton to create disease resistance in zebra fish and tilapia.
* A £300,000 DFID project at Southampton to produce "improved reversibly sterile" tilapia.