Government has no mandate to go ahead with commercial growing of GM maize

Speaking after the Report of the Advisory Committee on Release to the Environment (ACRE) today, Michael Meacher said:

“ACRE's advice to allow commercial planting of GM maize is flawed. It accepts cultivation of GM maize on condition that the management of the GM crop is limited to that tested in the Farm-Scale Evaluation Trials (FSE). But that FSE trial for maize is invalid on two grounds:

The chemical used for the conventional (i.e. non-GM) maize crop was atrazine, which has now been banned throughout the EU.
Bayer, the company responsible for the GM maize trial, told the farmers only to spray once. That allowed more weeds to grow, which was better for the wildlife in the fields. But in a genuine commercial situation, where the farmer is far more concerned about maximizing yield than protecting the environment, he would always spray twice and perhaps three times.

So, on both sides of the equation the FSE maize trials, the results were flawed. New trials are clearly needed which remove both the above defects.

In the case of GM oilseed rape and beet, the FSE trials came to an unequivocal conclusion that the GM crops did cause significantly greater harm to the environment and to wildlife. The Government repeatedly said beforehand that if the trials produced that result, they would refuse to commercialise the GM crops concerned.

The pro-GM ACRE however clearly still hankers after finding a way – any way – which would still keep the door open. They say there may be viable mitigation measures that could be used by farmers to offset any adverse effects. But that is clearly moving the goal-posts – inventing new criteria other than the ones which manifestly governed the trials. And if the unambiguous trial results are to be so easily discarded, what was the point of the trials in the first place? Or does ACRE (and the Government) have a predetermined agenda, and are they trying to shoehorn the evidence to fit it?

There have still been no trials about other (more important) aspects of environmental impact-

On soil bacteria
On bird populations
On gene flow
On a realistic commercial comparison where farmers are seeking to maximize yield.

And there has also been no testing at all of the health impacts of eating GM foods.

Until those tests are fully carried out, there is neither popular support nor scientific justification for growing GM crops in this country.”