GM RESEARCH TO GO AHEAD IN FOOT AND MOUTH ZONES

[Xanthe Bevis]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: FOE Internet System <nsuser at foe.co.uk>
Sent: Monday, March 26, 2001 6:34 PM
Subject: FOE.PRESS.RELEASE: GM RESEARCH TO GO AHEAD IN FOOT AND MOUTH ZONES


>   Immediate Release:  26 March 2001    Page 1 of 1  
>   GM RESEARCH TO GO AHEAD IN FOOT AND MOUTH ZONES
>   The Government is to allow GM crop research to take place on farms
>   in areas infected with foot and mouth disease Friends of the Earth
>   has discovered.  Government guidelines on GM crop trials and the
>   foot and mouth crisis obtained by FOE show that only those farms
>   where the disease is confirmed will be closed to the GM
>   scientists.  The Government is due to announce dozens of new GM
>   trial sites later this week [1].
> 
>   Friends of the Earth believes that as many as eleven Farm Scale
>   Trial sites are already in foot and mouth exclusion zones.  Last
>   week a number of farmers from around Britain appealed to MAFF and
>   the DETR to suspend this year's trials to reduce the risk of the
>   foot and mouth virus being spread by scientists [2] visiting the
>   sites.  Last week the Pesticide Safety Directive postponed all
>   non-essential field trial visits.
> 
>   Scientists from five institutions [3] are required to make a
>   number of visits to all the GM sites to monitor wildlife in the
>   trial fields.  They will move between farms and between counties.
>   The Department of the Environment has published guidelines for the
>   scientists to disinfect before and after visits, and to leave
>   vehicles off farms.  Farmers holding the GM trials are under
>   contract to the biotech industry body SCIMAC.
> 
>   Pete Riley, Food Campaigner at Friends of the Earth said:
>   It seems the only countryside activity unaffected by the foot and
>   mouth epidemic is the GM crop trials.  Despite the fact that there
>   is no demand for GM food, the biotech industry is determined to
>   push ahead with these trials, even in areas infected with this
>   terrible disease, and the Government is equally determined to
>   support them.  These GM tests must be halted this year to reduce
>   the risk of spreading foot and mouth further. 
> 
>   Notes to Editors  
>   1.  This week up to 32 new sites for GM fodder maize are due to be
>   announced.  This will bring the total number of GM farm scale
>   trials to 115.
> 
>   2.  Last week 8 farmers from around the UK wrote to Nick Brown and
>   Michael Meacher asking them to halt the farm scale trials to
>   reduce the risk of moving the foot and mouth disease between farms
>   and counties.
> 
>   3.  The five institutions involved in monitoring the FST are   :
>   Institute of Arable Crop Research   , Rothamsted;
>   Scottish Crop Research Institute  , Dundee; Centre for Hydrology
>   and Ecology  , Huntingdon; Central Science Laboratory, York;
>   British Trust for Ornithology  , Thetford
> $$
> 
> 
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