Farm scale trials

Greenpeace protesters removing GM maize from a field in Norfolk in 1999

In the spring of 1999, following widespread condemnation of the development of commercial GM crops in the UK, the government launched a programme of farm-scale trials. From the start, they were fundamentally flawed as the government didn't believe GM crops could have an impact on the environment so the trials were not designed to assess many of the more serious risks GM technology poses.

Instead, they were constructed to analyse the effects of two different herbicides on farmland wildlife and biodiversity which completely avoided the question of what effect the crops themselves would have. In response to this, Greenpeace volunteers uprooted a field of GM maize at Lyng in Norfolk before it flowered and released its pollen. Had the GM crop (a variety known as T25 maize) pollinated non-GM maize, it would then be impossible for farmers to market their produce as either non-GM or organic. Before the protest, we held a public meeting in Lyng where it was clear that the majority of residents did not want GM crops growing in their area.

The following year, despite the huge public outcry in the UK and across the European Union surrounding the presence of GM food on supermarket shelves, the government pressed ahead with a three-year trial of maize, sugar beet and oilseed rape. Even though these trials were to take into account the effects on plant and insect life, they were 800 per cent larger than the 1999 trials and spread over the whole country. Despite promises of transparency, the government jumped the gun by announcing the locations of farms that hadn't yet signed any contracts, resulting in several farmers pulling out of the trials as they faced opposition from local residents and other farmers.

The results, published in 2003 by the Royal Society, revealed that the cultivation of GM oilseed rape and sugar beet were actually harmful to the environment. Although maize came out in a more positive light, this was only because it was compared to a conventional maize growing regime that used a herbicide so toxic it has since been banned in Europe. Another case of the Blair government micro-managing an inquiry to get the answer they want, but even then the results clearly stated that the introduction of GM crops would be an appalling mistake.

Earlier that same year, the government launched a nationwide debate to canvas public opinion about whether GM crops should be grown in the UK, but again the process was fundamentally flawed from the get-go. Not only were the regional debates barely publicised and so suffered from low attendance, the government said it would not introduce a ban on GM crops even if the results from the debates found that there was overwhelming support in favour of such a ban.

We worked hard to get the public back in the loop. Our GM-o-Meter poll quizzed nearly 15,000 people around the UK and when asked, "Do you want your food to be free of GM ingredients?", 95 per cent said yes. We also helped to set up the GM Jury, an independent alternative to the government's stitch-up which decided that a moratorium on the commercialisation of GM crops should be maintained.

Bad news came in 2004 when, following on from the misleadingly positive results of the Royal Society, the government gave the green light for commercial growing of GM maize. But before the first fields had been sown, these plans were scuppered when Bayer Cropscience, the company behind the strain of the maize to be planted, pulled out. They effectively said their GM maize was a financial disaster. With scientists, farmers and the public responding with a resounding 'no' to the idea of GM food, the company realised there was no future for their GM crops in this country.

At present, there are no GM crops approved for commercial cultivation in the UK so our fields and countryside are free from genetic contamination. But as long as there is a government in Westminster that is sympathetic to the rapacious desires of the biotech companies as the Blair administration is, then the door is still open for more trials and even commercial cultivation in the future.