Community Food Growers Network statement on GM wheat trials

[Adam Payne]

Here is a statement from the Community Food Growers Network on the open field GM Wheat trials taking place at Rothamsted research institute this year. 



 
Community Food Growers say no to GM Wheat trials.  



We,
the members of the Community Food Growers Network, affirm our opposition to the
development of Genetically Modified (GM) plants and call for an immediate end
to the open air trials of GM wheat at the Rothamsted research institute.


As a
network of Community Food Growers we work to create healthy and sustainable
food systems for the benefit of local communities, their economies and
environments. We believe that the open air testing and commercial growing of GM
crops is a serious threat to sustainable food production, and that the
co-existence of GM and non-GM crops is untenable.


The
Genetic Modification of food crops represents the most destructive end of the
industrial agricultural system that privileges the profit of corporations over
the sustainability and resilience of global food systems. Wherever they have
been cultivated, GM crops have been responsible for huge losses in
agro-biodiversity, unpredictable cross contamination, and the dispossession of
small-scale farmers. 


We
oppose the cultivation of GM crops for the following reasons:


The planting and cultivation of GM crops
increases the control of multinational corporations over our food systems. These
corporations use the intellectual property regime to strip farmers of their
rights to save, exchange and grow traditional seeds while forcing them into
dependence on GM seeds and associated inputs.[i]
These corporations also use their financial and political power to gain access
to land and water at the expense of small producers.[ii]
GM endangers the livelihoods of small farmers and the sustainability of our
food systems.


Through the standardisation of the seeds made
available to farmers, GM is at the forefront of the genetic standardisation of
plant varieties and a huge reduction in agro-biodiversity worldwide.[iii]
By placing control of seed breeding in the hands of a few corporations, GM
dramatically weakens the resilience of our food systems to sudden changes.


The open air cultivation of GM crops causes
the cross-contamination of GM plants with non-GM plants leading to
unpredictable results and a loss of consumer confidence in our produce.[iv]
The open air trial of GM wheat puts the markets for our food and the health of
our ecological systems at risk.


The
cultivation of GM crops present significant obstacles to the creation of
sustainable and socially just food systems and signifies a further act in the
enclosure of global commons and natural heritage for private profit. We
therefore call for an immediate end to the open air trials of GM wheat at the
Rothamsted research station.


No to Privatisation and corporate
control of food! No to open air GM wheat trials!

 

www.cfgn.org.uk

 









[i] The International Assessment of Agricultural
Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) report
www.agassessment.org / BEDE. (2011). Seeds
and farmers rights; how international regulations affect farmer’s seeds.
www.farmersrights.org/pdf/semences_reglementations_EN.pdf





[ii] Busch,
L., Lacey, W.B., Burkhardt, J., and Lacey, L. (1990). Plants, power and
profit. Oxford, England: Basil Blackwell.





[iii] Altieri, Miguel (2001) Genetic Engineering in
Agriculture: The Myths, Environmental

Risks, and Alternatives (Food First).





[iv] European Coordiantion of La Via Campesina. (2010) ‘GMOs : The socio – economic impacts of
contamination’. www.eurovia.org/spip.php?article305 And GM Contamination Register
www.gmcontaminationregister.org

 





 		 	   		   		 	   		   		 	   		  
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