Now Insurers Say No to GM Crops – Survey

AMANDA BROWN / Press Association News / The Scotsman (UK) 7oct03

Farmers seeking insurance cover could encounter problems following the controversy over genetically modified crops, it was claimed today.

The warning came after a survey of the main insurance underwriters in the UK by new campaigning group FARM, set up as an independent voice for farmers.

It said its survey found that neither farmers considering growing GM crops, nor non-GM farmers seeking to protect their businesses from GM crop contamination, would be able to find cover from any of the five main firms it questioned.

Survey staff had found that opposition from the firms to insuring GM crops was comparable to the public’s hostility towards buying and eating them.

All the companies surveyed felt that too little was known about the long term effects of growing GM crops on human health and the environment to be able to offer any form of cover.

FARM’s national coordinator Robin Maynard said: “When insurers quantify GM crops in the same category as thalidomide, asbestos and terrorism, no thinking farmer should risk their business and public reputation by taking on this unproven, unwanted and unnecessary technology.

“Time and time again, farmers have borne the brunt of someone else’s mistakes or short-cuts –BSE, organophosphates, salmonella etc ....

“It’s time farmers got out of the firing line and let those seeking to force GM crops into our fields and on to supermarket shelves take the flak.

“If Government and their friends in the Biotech companies dispute the judgment of the professional insurers, perhaps they will offer unlimited cover to the few farmers willing to risk growing GM crops?

“In addition, for both farmers and consumers, they need to guarantee – what the insurers clearly believe isn’t possible – that GM crops can be grown without contaminating the crops of the majority of farmers who want to remain GM-free.”

The survey comes in advance of the results of the field scale trials of GM crops which are due to be published next week.

A nationwide survey of public opinion published last month showed overwhelming opposition to GM technology.

source: http://www.news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2024689 7oct03