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GM: Over-hyped, over-subsidised, over here

It was probably too much to hope for. The Take the Flour Back protesters never got near the fields of experimental GM wheat growing behind high fences at the Rothamstead research facility.

The hinted at aim of the protest – to uproot the GM crop – while not legal, had the laudable aim of preventing GM pollen being carried on the wind and by pollinators to other local crops.

The scientists involved in this taxpayer funded madness insist that cross pollination is not an issue. This flies in the face of everything we know. If you haven’t watched the video Farmer to Farmer on our site do take a moment to do so.

In it UK farmer Michael Hart goes on a journey across the US to talk to farmers who have been ruined by pollen drift from GM plants. His conclusion? GM and conventional crops cannot co-exist.

GM is a failed technology. It isn’t cheaper, it isn’t healthier, it isn’t more nutritious, it doesn’t reduce pesticide use, it doesn’t increase yields – and crucially consumers don’t want it.

We talk a lot about consumers’ right to choose. Consumers also have a right to refuse. This is the crux of the Just Label it Campaign in the US and of a new campaign in the UK , Citizens Concerned About GM.

Scientists don’t want it either. Earlier this year 22 top US scientists wrote a letter to the US Environmental Protection Agency urging it to ban GM crops on the basis that they pose an increasing threat to the environment.

While some other countries rush full pelt into a embracing GM food, the UK remains relatively GM-free.

This has prompted some observers to suggest that it should stay that way, if only to provide a large enough control group of uncontaminated people to help study the human health effects of a diet that increasingly includes GM foods.

We owe it to ourselves and our children and maybe, eventually, the world to keep GM out of the UK.

Pat Thomas, Editor