Britain:
New GM crop tests

The British Government has announced four new sites for the testing of 
genetically modified crops in spite of the potential hazards to all other 
plant and animal life in the surrounding areas.

A recent survey of public opinion found that 85 percent were afraid that 
the Government is denying them vital information on genetically modified 
food.

The Government, under pressure from giant food producing transnationals 
like the USA's Monsanto, is pleading that testing is needed to find out if 
the crops are safe or not.

But it is impossible to test these crops in open fields without the risk of 
pollen and seeds blowing about, contaminating the whole locality, 
interacting with the local flora and fauna with who knows what ultimate 
consequences.

Already in the United States, the use of GM foods is leading to the 
extinction of some insects. This will affect birds and other small animals 
that live on the insects. The ultimate repercussions are impossible to 
predict.

One of the British test sites will be in Bingham, Nottinghamshire. Local 
Labour MP Alan Simpson said: "All the scientific benchmarks currently in 
use are at best haphazard and at worst incompetent.

"We have to stop treating a revolutionary science as though it was just a 
different form of cake decoration." He added that most of the monitoring of 
the tests is left to the companies that want to do the tests.

"If these were new drugs they would not be allowed outside the laboratory 
and there is something wilfully irresponsible about treating a local 
environment or a whole community as an acceptable human laboratory", said 
Mr Simpson.

Existing food production methods are more than capable of meeting the needs 
of the whole world population and more. The problem lies in unequal 
ownership of the means of production and distribution. There is no need for 
GM food except to allow companies like Monsanto to make profits.

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New Worker