Fwd: Getting a shout out about the GM rally

[Simon Fairlie]

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> The Spuds don't work.
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> Delivering the answer to GM crops-
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> Outside the Forum, Norwich, noon, 23rd July 2011.
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> British trials of Genetically Modified blight resistant spuds have  
> been failing for the last ten years. But a conventionally bred  
> variety of blight resistant potatoes has been available for 7  
> years. So why are we still paying for their dangerous experiment?
>
> Come ride with us on the back of a trailer load of safe effective  
> spuds as we go to deliver them to the doors of the Sainsbury  
> Laboratory outside Norwich. It's one of only two possible open air  
> trials for GM crops in Britain this year, and has already cost the  
> taxpayer £1.7 million. Join us for pedal powered tunes, fine  
> organic chips and good cheer as we go and show them that we've  
> found the potatoes they're looking for. Emma Hockridge, the Soil  
> Associations head of Policy, Pete Riley, chair of the GM Freeze  
> campaign, Gerald Miles, potato farmer and others will be inviting  
> the John Innes Researchers to join them in debate.
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> Sunday 24th June
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> Countering the GM come back
>
> Make a weekend of it by sticking around under for a day long camp  
> to plan the next stages of the campaign. Help build projects on  
> everything from getting the GM oil out of takeaways to next years  
> proposed GM wheat trials, raising awareness of the new studies on  
> human health effects to European public decontamination solidarity  
> work. Camping spaces available from Friday pm onwards. For  
> practical details see www.stopgm.org.uk/gathering-momentum or ring  
> 07595 506673
>
> *********************************************************************
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> A tale of two spuds...
> For the last 10 years, researchers at the Sainsbury laboratory at  
> the John Innes Centre in Norwich have spent 1.7 million pounds of  
> public money failing to develop a genetically modified potato  
> resistant to the fungal disease blight. Public rejection of the  
> risks associated with eating genetically modified food means that  
> even if the engineering involved was successful, there would be no  
> market for the crop.
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> Meanwhile, 7 years ago a small Welsh research charity dedicated to  
> conventional breeding techniques developed a spud that is  
> spectacularly resistant to blight. Not only does the crop pose no  
> threat to health, the environment, or neighbouring farmers; it  
> works. Over 6 different varieties are now available, and being  
> grown on a commercial scale.
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> Why this, why now?
> The campaign against GM crops ten years ago was so successful that  
> GM almost completely vanished from our fields and supermarkets, and  
> most of the public have forgotten the issues associated with the  
> technology. But in many other parts of the world peasant farmers  
> have been desperately fighting its spread, and laws are changing in  
> Europe that would make it much easier for GM to be grown in  
> Britain. The coalition claims it intends to be “the most pro GM  
> this country has ever seen”, and an application for a GM wheat  
> trial has just been submitted for 2012.
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> GM is an outmoded technology that continues to waste money in  
> failing projects, while simultaneously threatening the very science  
> that's actually producing working alternatives quickly and cheaply.  
> The biotech companies have gone unchallenged in their claims that  
> GM can create genuinely useful crops when in fact all the  
> significant advancements in the last decade have come through  
> conventional breeding.
>
> With the renewed threat of GM on the horizon lets get together  
> again to show the rest of the country (and each other) that we're  
> still here, and we've got an even better case than ever. This is  
> the perfect opportunity to demonstrate that it's us, and not the  
> corporations, that have the answers to the food crisis.
>
> The event is being co-ordinated by Stop GM in conjunction with the  
> Genetic Engineering Network.
> For more information please check this briefing on the potatoes  
> from the GM Freeze<http://www.gmfreeze.org/uploads/ 
> 63A_spud_briefing_jic_final.pdf> and how to get hold of the  
> solution www.sarvari-trust.org.
>
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