1.Ex-Minister: Only Blair and Beckett Support GM
2.RICS Calls For GM Land Register To Protect The Consumer
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1.Ex-Minister: Only Blair and Beckett Support GM
By Amanda Brown, PA Environment Correspondent
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=4169657
MPs were being urged today to listen to their constituents over fears about the threat of genetically modified crops and foodstuffs.
The call came from former Environment Minister Michael Meacher and green campaigners, at a rally in Westminster organised by Friends of the Earth, the Five Year Freeze, FARM and the National Federation of Women’s Institutes.
Mr Meacher said the Prime Minister Tony Blair and Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett were supporting GM in defiance of their own policies.
"Everyone except the Government is against GM. Public opinion is overwhelming against it and if anything it’s hardening.
"The supermarkets aren't stocking it."
The MP said farmers are increasingly turning against it, because in Canada, the US and Argentina where GM crops are grown, they have found that in the last eight years pesticide use has gone up not down, which is proving expensive.
He added "Local authorities are opposing it and want GM free areas.
"There are now 60 in this country, there are hundreds in the EU.
"The only bodies that remain in favour are the government and that is basically Tony Blair and Margaret Beckett and it is in defiance of their own polices."
He said the New Labour agenda spoke constantly about choice in health, education and a raft of policies.
"How about choice in the most fundamental political decision of all, what we eat?" he added.
Director of Friends of the Earth, Tony Juniper, told the Press Association: "Seven years ago the biotechnology industry and the Government were on the point of flooding the country with GM crops and food and since then public opinion has stopped them.
"Today is about making sure that public opinion remains a key element in policy making in the future because it is clear that government and companies still want to press ahead despite what the public has so obviously said to them.
"So we are lobbying MPs to make sure the controls are in place to protect farmers and the public from any effects of GM crops that might be harmful.”
US lawyer and journalist Claire Hope-Cummings told the rally at the Emmanual Centre in Westminster that GM contamination is “rampant” in America and the public did not like it.
"They want labels, but the US Government has made a political decision one not based on science that says they are not going to pay attention to the America public's needs or desires. They are following the guidance of industry.
"So what we have in the US is untested, unregulated GM and the farmers are suffering enormous contamination of their crops, so even conventional farmers are unable to export their crops to Japan and the EU."
Carrie Stubbings from Five Year Freeze said the EU had handed responsibility to decide co-existence and crop separation distances on GM to the UK Government.
"We are expecting the government to consult the public at some point about what measures would be appropriate.
"But the consultation has slipped from last summer and DEFRA say it will happen some time in 2005.
"What seems clear to us is that they plan to propose separation distances that would allow routine contamination of all crops including organic ... effectively it could get into all our food and we wouldn’t have a choice any more."
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2.RICS Calls For GM Land Register To Protect The Consumer
STACKYARD NEWS, 23/02/05
http://www.stackyard.com/news/2005/02/land_register.html
Public concern regarding GM (Genetically Modified) crops is a mounting issue as demonstrated by the GM-free Britain lobby of Parliament taking place on Wednesday 23rd February. There is a growing sentiment that the public have the right to know where crops are coming from and whether or not they are GM-free.
According to Brian Berry, Head of Land Policy, Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), 'The only way to allay growing public concern about genetically modified crops, as evidenced by the GM-free lobby of Parliament on 23 February, is to have a system in place to record where GM crops are grown. Only then will the consumer's right to choose be protected.'
The RICS' proposal for the creation of a web-based GM Land Register offers advantages to all parties, both pro and anti GM:
simple, cost efficient and minimises red tape for farmers as well as producers of GM crops
provides genuine consumer and producer choice in the consumption and growing of GM, non-GM and organic crops as well as offering a practical and implementable system to ensure the full traceability of approved and future location of GM crops and details of crops grown
benefits professionals involved in advising clients on the purchase, sale, value, lease or management of land and property
others who will benefit include: prospective purchasers or lessees of land and property looking for warnings on any possible issues relating to their proposed transaction; those trading in non-GM crops or organic crops,who need to make sure the product meets the growers' claims; those regulators in the UK who monitor any potentially beneficial or harmful effects of GM crops; financial organisations lending money against the security of agricultural, horticultural and other property; land owners and occupiers who wish to comply with all the rules and codes of practice as a defence against potential liability claims from neighbouring farmers and others suffering loss or damage through cross contamination.
RICS is currently lobbying the Government to implement the GM Land Register and is awaiting the publication of the Defra consultation paper which will set out the Government's proposals on how best to implement EU Directive 2001/18EC. This Directive places an obligation on Member States to draw up a register for recording the location of GM crops before the first commercial release of crops.