Law to save organic crops from GM fallout

Colin Brown and Geoffrey Lean /  Independent on Sunday UK 13may01

New laws to protect organic farms from contamination by GM crops are being drawn up by the Government in the wake of last week's disclosure by The Independent on Sunday that Europe's biggest research centre for chemical-free agriculture is threatened by an official trial.

Michael Meacher, the Environment minister, told MPs at a private meeting last week that producers of GM crops could be made liable for any organic or other farms damaged by their activities. The revelations in the IoS caused a storm of protest. Campaigners staged a vigil to stop GM seed being planted at a farm near the Henry Doubleday seedbank in the Midlands.

The MPs were told by the minister that legislation to enforce "produce liability" was being drafted. Mr Meacher was said to be angry that neither he nor the official Scientific Steering Committee -- which approved the inclusion of the site in the GM trails -- knew that the farm at Wolston lay within two miles of the national organic seedbank.

The scientific committee, GM seed producers Aventis and Scimac (the industry body overseeing the trials) were urged by Mr Meacher to abandon the trial. Committee members are to give their reaction tomorrow, but their chairman, Professor Christopher Pollock, is resisting the minister's request.

That could lead to a trial of strength this week, putting Mr Meacher's job on the line. Tony Blair has made it clear he believes that scientific advances should not be stopped. Although he has insisted he is not "anti-GM", Mr Meacher has publicly called for legislative powers to force GM producers to inform neighbouring farms before they go ahead with seed trials.

The Soil Association, which certifies organic farms, has written to the Henry Doubleday centre warning that it will withdraw its licence from any fields contaminated by GM pollen.

The new measures being considered could dramatically shift the balance of power against GM firms. Jackie Lawrence, the Labour MP for Preseli, Pembrokeshire -- where two trials were abandoned after local complaints last week -- said: "Seed producers and farmers will think very carefully indeed about whether or not they are going to plant GM crops if they are going to have to pay."