1. Food Safety Authority boss says Krebs' views "extreme"
2. Greenpeace back in the dock
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1. Food Safety Authority boss says Krebs' views "extreme"
Looks like we've got another vote for Krebs and this time it's from the chief executive of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland! It has come to something when a man put in charge of a UK agency charged with protecting the consumer interest is described as an extremist by his Irish opposite number.
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Public 'entitled' to organic food option [shortened]
By Mary Carolan
The Irish Times
Tuesday, September 5, 2000
Organic food is not any safer than conventional food but some consumers choose it for environmental reasons and because they perceive it tastes better, the chief executive of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland has said.
Dr Patrick Wall said yesterday consumers were entitled to have a choice between organic and conventional produce, and he did not share the "extreme" views of Sir John Krebs, chairman of the British government-appointed Food Standards Agency, who has said people were wasting their money by paying more for organic food.
Dr Wall said: "There is no evidence it is any safer than conventional food. People are buying it for a variety of reasons: that it is more environmentally friendly, more wholesome, and is better produced . . . Consumers want organic food and it should be there for them."
Sir John said there was no evidence that organic food was healthier or safer than more conventionally grown produce and in his view, organic consumers were not receiving value for money. His comments were criticised by the Soil Association, which registers organic farmers in Britain. It noted Sir John was a supporter of GM foods and accused him of failing to be objective in the continuing debate over food quality.
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2. Greenpeace back in the dock
Lord Melchett and company back in the dock to deny GM crop damage
By Michael McCarthy, Environment Correspondent
5 September 2000
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/UK/Environment/2000-09/gmcrop050900.shtml
Lord Melchett, executive director of Greenpeace, and 27 supporters of the environmental campaign group went on trial for a second time yesterday, charged with criminally damaging a field of genetically modified crops. The defendants attacked a farm-scale trial of GM maize at Walnut Tree Farm at Lyng, near Dereham, Norfolk, in July 1999, a jury at Norwich Crown Court was told. Their aim was to "advance their cause" of anti-GM action, said John Farmer, for the prosecution. The retrial is expected to last two weeks.
At a hearing at Norwich in April, a jury could not agree a verdict on the criminal damage charge, although the defendants were cleared of theft of the crops. The Greenpeace 28 are again denying criminal damage.
Mr Farmer told jurors it was not their job to decide the rights and wrongs of the debate on genetically modified crops but to decide whether the defendants were guilty of causing criminal damage. "This is a case in which it will not be necessary to get absorbed in the science and scientific opinions," he said. "You will all be aware there are strong arguments on both sides. But we are not here to decide the science."
He said the reason for the attack was to gain publicity, not because all 28 were concerned, as they claimed, about the effect the GM plants could have on other crops on nearby land.
The defendants, who all deny criminal damage, had worn white boiler-suits with the word Greenpeace across the back to make it clear who they were representing, he said. Greenpeace also arranged for the attack to be videoed, and the defendants knew they would not be able to remove all of the crop before they were interrupted by police.
"What is really behind this is not a concern for any individual property but to advance the cause ? to advance it by means of publicity," Mr Farmer said. "The growing of the crop ... was a perfectly lawful activity. The prosecution say to destroy it was unlawful. It is unlawful to destroy other people's property."
The GM crop trial was being conducted by the multinational agrochemical company AgrEvo, which has its headquarters in Berlin.
Mr Farmer said the 28 defendants agreed they destroyed the crop but claimed they were acting out of necessity to prevent neighbouring organic crops and gardens being damaged by GM pollen from the maize, which was about to flower. He said the defendants did not have to prove such a belief was right, merely that it was honestly held.
Owen Davies QC, for all 28 defendants, said since the last Greenpeace trial in April, a crop of GM rape from Canada had contaminated other plant seed in Germany and France.
The Government had been aware of the contamination while the first trial was on, although it had not made the information public until May, he said.
Judith Jordan, product development manager for Aventis, as AgrEvo is now called, said she had known of the contamination before the information was made public, but did not know of it when she gave evidence at the first trial.
Mr Davies said: "It looks as though there is certainly an issue to be explored about how far pollen can travel." Ms Jordan said she "would not disagree".
The 28 members of Greenpeace on trial for allegedly damaging genetically modified crops are: Adrian O'Neil, 26, of Beverley, East Yorkshire; Alastair Beveridge, 31, of Aberdeen; Andrew McParland, 34, of Epsom, Surrey; Andy Tait, 29, of Highbury, north London; Brenda Ramsey, 34, of Leytonstone, east London; Chris Holden, 22, of Tottenham, north London; Emma Hargreaves, 29, of Tooting, south London; Emma Protz, 28, of Enfield, north London; Iain McSeveny, 37, of Highbury, north London; Jacky Westwood, 42, of Mexborough, South Yorkshire; Jo Melzack, 52, of Withington, Manchester; Keith Dawson, 27, of Stamford, Lincolnshire; Lisa Weatherley, 31, of Chessington, Surrey; Malcolm Carroll, 44, of Stafford, and Margaret Weaver, 44, of Sandhurst, Berkshire.
Others are: Martin Porter, 30, of Glossop, Derbyshire; Michael Uwins, 54, of Wymondham, Norfolk; Mick Waldram, 39, of Coalville, Leicestershire; Nicola Cook, 32, of Diss, Norfolk; Paul Belloti, 57, of London; (Lord) Peter Melchett, 52, of Hunstanton, Norfolk; Rachel Murray, 27, of Highbury, north London; Simon Hackin, 34, of Cowgate, Edinburgh; Simon Bowens, 33, of Guisley, Leeds; Spencer Cooke, 32, of Bradwell, Hope Valley, Derbyshire; Stokely Webster, 29, of London; Tim Copley, 42, of Harpenden, Herts, and Tim Hewke, 40, of Lower Clapton, London.
The trial continues today.