GMWatch News Review archive

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from Andy Rees, the WEEKLY WATCH editor
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Dear Weekly Watchers

Welcome to WW37 bringing you all the latest news in brief on the GM issue.  Please spread it far and wide!

Andy <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
www.ngin.org.uk

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WEEKLY WATCH  number 37 - CONTENTS
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SETBACKS TO THE GM INDUSTRY
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK
FORTHCOMING EVENTS
ANIMAL GENETICS
ARTICLE OF THE WEEK 1 - Unwelcome underperformers
ARTICLE OF THE WEEK 2 - Promise of GM foods 'not quite realized'
ARTICLE OF THE WEEK 3 - RS trying to stifle the GM debate
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
FACT OF THE WEEK
FAIRYTALES FROM THE GM LOBBY
HEADLINES OF THE WEEK
CAMPAIGN OF THE WEEK - PILGRIMS JOIN TRACS AND TROLLEYS AGAINST GM
SUBSCRIPTIONS

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SETBACKS TO THE GM INDUSTRY
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GM CONCERN HIGH AMONGST U.S. LOW INCOME CONSUMERS:
A peer-reviewed study from the US, on the awareness and attitudes to GM foods of low-income consumers, radically challenges claims that Americans are confidently consuming GM foods or that consumer concerns are a luxury of the affluent.  "Over 80% of the participants indicat(ed) no prior knowledge or awareness of GM foods...  Their awareness of GM foods was low, but ethical and safety concerns were fairly high; and they wanted GM foods to be labeled."  The study is published in the University of California's journal 'California Agriculture' (July-September 2003 issue): http://danr.ucop.edu/calag/about.html.
ABSTRACT: http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1291
FULL TEXT: http://danr.ucop.edu/calag/0303JAS/pdfs/GM_food.pdf
Interesting to view these findings alongside the recent multi-country study, undertaken by university researchers in the US, Norway, Japan and Taiwan, showing consumers, including American consumers, are willing to pay substantial premiums for non-GM foods.  That study also found strong support among American consumers for mandatory labelling of GM foods.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1263
Many polls over the years have shown Americans, by a huge margin, want GM foods to be labelled. According to a July 2003 ABC News telephone poll of 1,024 adults, 92 percent of Americans support labelling.

AUSTRALIAN FARMERS SAY NO TO GM CROPS:
In the first public survey of farmers' attitudes across Australia toward GM crops, Biotechnology Australia found 74% of 500 people quizzed said they would not consider growing GM crops at this stage.  49% said they were generally opposed to GM crops, while only 23% said they were supportive.  This position is in stark contrast with the pro-GM line of the National Farmers' Federation and federal Agriculture Minister Warren Truss.  Australia's first GM food crop, a GM canola, was approved for commercial use last month.  A series of state moratoriums on GM crops means a widescale planting is unlikely for several years.  Australian Democrats agriculture spokesman John Cherry said the poll was a wake-up call for GM supporters. http://news.ninemsn.com.au/Sci_Tech/story_35883.asp

AUSTRALIA'S BIGGEST CANOLA BUYER WILL NOT BUY GM:
Australian food company Goodman Fielder, Australia's biggest buyer of canola (oilseed rape) oil, has said it will not buy products made from GM canola, because its consumers don't want GM products, reported ABC News. http://www.just-food.com/news_detail.asp?art=55122

BISHOP SPEAKS OUT IN THE PHILIPPINES:
A letter has been sent by Bishop Gutierrez, Chair of the Episcopal Commission on Social Action, Justice and Peace in the Philippines, to Bishop Martino in Rome expressing "deep concern" about any planned Vatican endorsement of GM crops.  According to a report in The Guardian, "Renato Martino is the prelate behind the pro-GM lobby" in Rome. (Vatican backing sparks GM row, Report set to anger Catholics in developing world, The Guardian, 13 August 2003,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/gmdebate/Story/0,2763,1018256,00.html)
Bishop Gutierrez in his letter notes that the Permanent Council of the Catholic Bishops' Conference in the Philippines has also released a statement supporting the campaign of opposition to the commercial release of Monsanto's GM corn in the Philippines.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1350

US-BASED CONFERENCE OF CHURCHES UPHOLDS PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE ON GMOS:
An important statement from a US-based multi-denominational Conference of Churches:  "As representatives of the church in this primary wheat production area [North Dakota], we believe the precautionary principle would require the application of a moratorium on the release of genetically modified wheat.  We would further recommended requirements to label foods containing GMO ingredients, a review and reconsideration of the issues of patenting life-forms, and a rigorous legislative and regulatory review of GMO commodities involving all the stakeholders. "Humankind was given responsibility for creation and its stewardship. Such responsibility must be considered in the context of the full time span of creation.  It must be carried out with deep respect for life and the complexity of ecological relationships among varieties of life forms, humankind, and the environment.  Such stewardship requires informed and careful discernment of the opportunities and limitations within the natural order of creation. It must uphold the sacredness of life and creation." http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1339

ACTIVISTS INTERCEPT TRAIN DUMPING GM CORN:
Greenpeace activists intercepted a trainload of U.S. corn [August 17] as it tried to enter Mexico, in response to new evidence that the US is dumping GM crops across the border.  The transport of this corn contravenes international agreements, and undermines the diversity and health of Mexican corn and the people who rely on it.  Activists suspended themselves from the train's axles to hang below the railway bridge over the Rio Grande --- the Mexican-U.S. border --- while the Greenpeace Mexico office negotiated with the Mexican Government for a ban on the U.S. dumping of GM corn in Mexico.  Scientific analysis from an independent U.S. laboratory of U.S. corn samples entering Mexico last autumn showed roughly one third of the corn was GM.  Corn imports from the U.S. are thought to be responsible for widespread contamination of traditional varieties of corn grown by peasants in the mountainous regions of central Mexico.  Much of the corn entering Mexico is Monsanto's Bt corn, engineered to produce a toxin that kills insects, threatens native butterflies and moths and damages the fertility of the soil.  The long term impacts of engineered crops on humans and the environment are currently not known.  Doreen Stabinsky of Greenpeace said, "This contaminated corn poses unacceptable threats to Mexico's unique and valuable stores of biological diversity.  Moreover, the dumping of U.S. corn in Mexico has had significant negative impacts on the agricultural sector, displacing millions of peasants who are put out of work by cheap corn imports."  In January 2003, over 100,000 Mexican peasants staged a protest in Mexico City demanding an end to cheap corn imports. AgriBusiness Examiner, Issue #279, http://www.ea1.com/CARP/
http://www.greenpeace.org/international_en/news/details?item_id=302714

VECTOR DELAYS NATIONAL LAUNCH OF GM-TOBACCO CIGARETTES:
Vector Group Ltd has delayed the national launch of its Quest low- and no-nicotine cigarettes made with GM tobacco.  Instead it will sharpen its marketing within the seven-state test market where it rolled out the brand in January.  The Miami company will decide later when it will launch Quest; it had planned to go national with Quest this quarter. Vector has already spent about $15 million on the project. Vector Group lost $4.9 million, in the quarter ended June 30, compared with the second quarter of 2002, when it lost $3.3 million. Revenues were down $9 million.
http://www.courier-journal.com/business/news2003/08/21/biz-2-smoke21-4145.ht
ml

BRAZIL NOT EXPECTED TO LEGALIZE GMOS:
Brazil's government will not authorize the planting of GM soybeans for the coming crop season, which starts in October, said Chief of Staff Jose Dirceu.  He told a meeting of members from the governing Workers Party that the current law, which allows the sale of GMOs up to February 2004, but not the planting, must be respected.  Last week, Federal Judge Selene Maria de Almeida upheld a request by Monsanto to suspend a court ruling blocking the planting and sale of its RoundUp Ready soybeans. However, federal attorneys say the provisional measure to which Dirceu referred overrides this decision.
http://www.cropdecisions.com/show_story.php?id=20886

MONSANTO IN $700 MILLION POLLUTION SETTLEMENT:
Monsanto this week agreed to pay a share of $700m to settle claims that it contaminated an Alabama town.  Monsanto had been accused of pumping the local river with PCBs, which were banned by the US government in the 1970s as a possible carcinogen.  It had also buried waste in a landfill. Lawyers claimed Monsanto had covered up evidence that the PCBs were harmful, including evidence of fish dying in nearby creeks. Internal memos were produced that insisted they should put protection of the image of the corporation first.  One said: "We can't afford to lose one dollar of business."  Residents say thousands of children developed cancer and cerebral palsy after being exposed to the chemicals.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,1026376,00.html
http://www.mindfully.org/Industry/2003/Monsanto-Solutia-Pay-$600M-21aug03.ht
m
http://www.portal.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2003/08/22/cnm
ons22.xml&menuId=242&sSheet=/money/2003/08/22/ixcity.html

JAPANESE PREFECTURE SAYS 'GMOS - NO!':
According to Kyoto Daily News, at a press conference on Aug.19th the governer of Shiga Prefecture announced a forthcoming guideline that will prohibit all GM crops for human consumption even if they have been approved at a national level.  Growing GM varieties for food crops such as rice, soybean, corn, rapeseed, and tomato, will be prohibited.  GM plants not for food use, such as flowers and cotton, will be permitted only provided pollen drift is prevented and consent from neighbouring farmers is secured.  Prefectural staff also visited a farmer who planted GM soybeans in Chuzu and asked him to destroy the crop that triggered the planned guideline.  The farmer has agreed to comply.
http://www.kyoto-np.co.jp/kp/topics/2003aug/20/W20030820MWH1S000000010.html

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OTHER HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK
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US escalates GM food row with Europe
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Europe's dispute with America over GM food escalated this week after Washington asked the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to force the EU to lift its five-year-old ban on new GM food products.  In a move which raises the prospect of a fresh trade war just a month before crucial world trade talks in Mexico, America requested the formation of a WTO dispute settlement panel to decide once and for all who is right on GM technology. The call was backed by Argentina and Canada.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/gmdebate/Story/0,2763,1021581,00.html
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BIO threatens Australia
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America's biotechnology industry is claiming that preventing the commercial release of genetically modified crops in some parts of Australia violates free trade agreements.  Val Giddings, the vice-president of the Washington-based Biotechnology Industry Organisation (BIO), said at a national biotechnology conference in Adelaide that free-trade agreements do not allow the banning of an agricultural product, unless there is a scientifically based expectation of particular problems.  He warned, "I'm not sure that the problem is really so severe that we need to raise it to the level of formal complaints that the United States has registered within the WTO with regard to Europe's failure to abide by its obligations - I do expect the problem to resolve itself before we get to that point."  The Australian government is currently trying to negotiate a 'free trade' deal with the US.  GM ban 'breaks' trade agreements, ABC News Online, 17 Aug 2003
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s926293.htm
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GM onions 'outdated' - huge number of objections
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The prospect of GM onions has generated an almost unprecedented number of submissions to New Zealand's Environmental Risk Management Authority, which has received 1,500 submissions on the proposed field trial.  Crop & Food Research (CFR) wants to try a herbicide-resistant onion. It's the first application for a field trial since NZ's Royal Commission on GM. David Warrick, Managing Director, Certified Organics Ltd, objects on the grounds that CFR's technology is based on "outdated" crop management techniques, "overtaken" by new organic herbicide product development.
http://www.lifesciencenz.com/news-detail.asp?newsID=4544
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GM the new nuke issue, says NZ's Rod Donald
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Keep the [GM] genie in the bottle - that's the message from New Zealand's Green Party co-leader Rod Donald to a meeting.  NZ's GM moratorium runs out at the end of October and the Greens are anxious to see it extended, fearing contamination of the food chain if GM is introduced in NZ.  Donald appealed to people, among them farmers and organic growers, to take any direct action they could to put pressure on the Government to extend the moratorium.  "Just as with the nuclear issue, if there is GE contamination there is no going back, our health and welfare is at enormous risk and the main ones benefiting are big US corporates," Mr Donald said.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2634725a3600,00.html
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Michael Meacher: Keep Kiwi butter GM-free
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Another very good article by Former British environment minister, Michael Meacher:  "Given the rejection of GE foods in Britain and by the majority of Europeans, I was surprised to find that the production of GE crops in New Zealand is still an open question.  New Zealand has a reputation throughout Europe, its principal food export market, as a source of clean and pure produce.  A reputation that was in no small part earned by your nation's brave stance against another unnecessary and unsafe technology: nuclear power.

"Any agricultural nation must make a choice between growing GE food, for which there is enormous market resistance, or GE-Free production, for which there is tremendous demand. You cannot have it both ways.  The reality is that you cannot have co-existence of conventional and GE: it simply doesn't work.

"The UK [Goverment's] strategy unit reported last month that 'any economic benefits from commercial cultivation of current GE crops are likely to be outweighed by other developments, at least in the short term.'  It stated that producing GE products 'could leave farmers facing a low market price, or in the extreme, no market at all'."

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FORTHCOMING EVENTS
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Welcome to gmjury.org
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During July and August 2003 two parallel citizens juries were carried out in Hertfordshire and Tyneside in order to give political space to a group of citizens who become informed on the issues involved in the current debate on GM crops being promoted by the UK Government.  Carried out by the DIY Citizens Jury Project, University of Newcastle, the GM Jury process constitutes one of the most rigorous public deliberation exercise ever carried out on the issue of GM foods. Each jury has heard from the same witnesses and reached their conclusions independently of each other.  The process was funded by the Consumers Association, the Co-op, Greenpeace and Unilever.  It was overseen by an independent oversight panel, whose members have a range of both expertise of citizen participatory initiatives and of the issues surrounding GM foods and farming.  Newcastle's DIY Citizens Jury Project is funded by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust.  Compiled by Newcastle University researchers, 'The People's Report on GM Crops' will be released on Monday 8 September, 2003.  Further details of the GM Jury process are available at:  www.gmjury.org.  The site also provides more information about GM and links to other juries around the world.
http://www.gmjury.org/
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Krebs to speak at Scientific Alliance event
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Royal Institution is staging an event in association with the Scientific Alliance:  'Science meets politics,' Thursday 20 November at 6.30pm. Speakers include Sir John Krebs FRS, Chairman, Food Standards Agency. The discussion will be chaired by Baroness Greenfield. Tickets cost GBP8, GBP5 for Ri members and concessions.
http://www.rigb.org/rimain/calendarDisplay.jsp?&cat=0&mnth=10&yr=2003#
and click on '20'
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GM event in Mexico City
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Gene Flow: What Does It Mean for Biodiversity and Centers of Origin; Mexico City, September 29-30.  2 of the 3 speakers are:  Peter Raven and Luis Herrera-Estrella. NOT exactly a balanced panel!
http://www.maizegeneflow.org/
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'Is Small Beautiful?' event
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A one-day conference looking at new technologies etc, with Tewolde Egziabher, Michael Lipton, Pat Mooney, and Martin Khor, amongst others. 9.30am - 5pm, 3rd September 2003, Regent's College Conference Centre, Regent's Park, London.
http://www.itdg.org/html/whats_new/is_small_beautiful.htm

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ANIMAL GENETICS
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Cloning yields human-rabbit hybrid embryo
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Scientists in China have, for the first time, used cloning techniques to create hybrid embryos that contain a mix of DNA from both humans and rabbits, according to a report in a scientific journal that has reignited the ethics debate over cloning research.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A55911-2003Aug13
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Researchers give clone health warning
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Italian scientists have succeeded in creating the world's first horse clone, but scientists in Cambridge have found new evidence that the process of creating an animal copy damages the genetic mechanisms that enable normal development.  The discovery explains why it takes hundreds of attempts to create a living clone, with some miscarriages and deformed births.   It also has implications for the long-term health of these creatures. Many leading cloning scientists are becoming increasingly concerned that even apparently healthy animals may be flawed.  One scientist told the BBC that the death of Dolly the sheep last year was probably just an indication of what was to come:  that many more cow and sheep clones would die as they approached middle age. It is well known that most clones are abnormal and do not make it to term.   The new research shows supposedly healthy successful clones have more subtle defects that only show up later.  But with the prospect of horses being cloned purely for sport, Dolly the sheep's creator Professor Ian Wilmut believes the time is now right for a thorough and independent scientific programme to assess the harm posed to animals by cloning.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3131255.stm

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ARTICLE OF THE WEEK 1 -
Unwelcome underperformers, Guelph Mercury, 14.8.03
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Dr E Ann Clark, an associate professor of plant agriculture at the University of Guelph, Canada, looks at information from:
**the US Department of Agriculture (Fernandez-Cornejo and McBride, 2002;
www.ers.usda.gov/publications/aer810/),
**from Charles Benbrook 1999 (www.biotech-info.net/RR_yield_drag_98.pdf)
and 2001 (www.biotech- info.net/troubledtimes.html)] -- former Chair of the Board on Agriculture of the US National Academy of Science --
**and from the scientific literature (Elmore et al., 2002a and b; Agron. J. 93(2):404-407 and 408-412)
And concludes that, "genetically modified crops have served to enrich biotech companies at the expense of financially strapped farmers, expose non-adopters of GM to the unavoidable risk of lawsuits, eliminate organic canola-growing in the west [of Canada], contaminate the food supply with genetically modified crops that consumers don't want, and compromise the marketability of our crops to off-shore buyers."
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1295

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ARTICLE OF THE WEEK 2 -
Promise of GM foods 'not quite realized', Guelph Mercury, 19.8.03
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Professor Ann Oaks, FRSC, (plant physiologist), Guelph, is concerned that we are about to make the same mistake with GM wheat, as with GM canola.  When Roundup Ready canola was introduced, farmers were promised three things:
1)    higher yields,
2)    requirements for lower levels of round-up and
3)    the right to choose.
In the intervening five years or so because of pollen drift and other factors that are difficult to control farmers' fields were contaminated with Roundup Ready-canola, and, in fact, scientists at Ag Canada in Saskatoon (Downie and Beckie, 2002) and in the Plant Science Department at the University of Manitoba (Van Acker et al, 2003, Agronomy J, in press) have confirmed that pedigreed canola seed cannot be guaranteed GM-free.  Farmers no longer have the possibility of choosing GM-free seed should they not want the Roundup Resistant-canola variety.

Now we are asked to consider RR-wheat. Oaks says she went to the experts and asked if there would there be contamination with wheat as there has been with canola?  The answer from all the scientists was an unqualified "yes".

Within five years we can expect a contamination of pedigreed wheat seed as serious as that which we have with canola.  Again the farmer opting to grow GM-free wheat will have no choice.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1295

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ARTICLE OF THE WEEK 3 -
The Royal Society must not be allowed to stifle the GM debate,
Andy Rowell in The Guardian, 19.8.03
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Commercial interests are taking over our universities, and intense economic and political pressures are put on scientists to pursue research that offers raw economic results.  Nowhere is this more apparent than within the GM debate, where any scientist who confronts the GM juggernaut is sure to be vilified and have their reputation ruined, especially if they dare speak about their research before a "peer review" in a scientific journal.  Peer review is the safety net that guards science; however, some scientists complain that, in practice, peer review stops critical science being disseminated.

Last week the Royal Society, launched an investigation into how the results of scientific research are published. But already this investigation looks like it will be used to attack those who have published science critical of commercially sensitive areas - as evidenced in an interview with a member of the working party, Professor Paul Harvey, in the Scotsman.

The pressures are clear from the attacks on scientists like Pusztai, and Quist and Chapela.  The pressures around Britain's recent GM science review led panelist Professor Carlo Leifert to resign, in part, because he feared that staying would jeopardise his research funding.  It is also known that a very senior pro-GM scientist tried to sabotage the career of another scepotical panelist, Dr Andy Stirling, rubbishing his work and trying to get him dropped from a research project.  "Such behaviour by individuals in privileged academic or regulatory positions threatened seriously to compromise the credibility and proper functioning of the science advice system," note the minutes of the science review panel.

Such behaviour sends a chilling message:  keep your head down and don't dare to question.  What is happening to critical GM scientists is evocative of what happened to those critical of nuclear power, toxic pollution, BSE and foot and mouth.  Dr Pat Costner is a senior scientist with Greenpeace. In the early 90s, Costner's home and office were burned down in an arson attack, a month before she was to publish results of an investigation into toxic waste incineration.  "I used to love the silence," said Costner. "Now it haunts me."  As critical voices in the GM debate get attacked, the sound of silence should haunt us all.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/gmdebate/Story/0,2763,1021573,00.html

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QUOTE OF THE WEEK
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"Any agricultural nation must make a choice between growing GE food, for which there is enormous market resistance, or GE-Free production, for which there is tremendous demand. You cannot have it both ways.  .The reality is that you cannot have co-existence of conventional and GE: it simply doesn't work."  - Michael Meacher in NZ's Dominion Post - 7 August 2003.

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FACT OF THE WEEK
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The latest scientific analysis shows that one third of US maize entering Mexico is contaminated with GM varieties from Monsanto.
http://www.greenpeace.org/international_en/news/details?item_id=302714

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FAIRYTALES FROM THE GM LOBBY
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"Literally thousands of laboratory, greenhouse and field studies show the risks of GM plants and foods to be minimal, while their benefits - in terms of increased yields and reduced pesticide use  - are legion," claim Henry I Miller and Greg Conko in the Financial Times.
[Compare their unsupported claims to ARTICLE OF THE WEEK 1 - Unwelcome underperformers, Guelph Mercury, 14.8.03]

Future increases in their use would improve human nutrition and, by reducing pressure on land and water, protect fragile ecosystems.  "But the precautionary principle stands in the way.
[Compare this to SETBACKS TO THE GM INDUSTRY - US-based Conference of Churches upholds precautionary principle on GMOs]

"The only winners will be the Brussels bureaucrats who will enjoy additional power, and the anti-science activists who will have succeeded in erecting yet another barrier to a superior technology.  **The biggest losers will be consumers**, who will be denied access to safer, more nutritious and more affordable food."

A rabid piece, full of lies!
http://search.ft.com/search/article.html?id=030814000909&query=Brussels%27+b
ad+science+will+cost+the+world+dear&vsc_appId=totalSearch&state=Form

Dr Patricia Elliott responds in Letters to the Editor, Financial Times, August 18, 2003 - 'Brussels right to be cautious of GM foods':

"Their [Conko & Miller's] exposition of the advantages of genetically modified crop technology is itself an example of 'bad science'.

"Repeated assertions about the risks being minimal and the benefits 'legion' are all too common and ought to be supported by properly conducted and peer-reviewed research work.  Can the authors quote any survey that has been carried out to determine the affects of any GM product on human health?"
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1338

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HEADLINES OF THE WEEK: from the GM WATCH archive
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16/8/2003 GM concern high among low income consumers
18/8/2003 Activists intercept train trying to enter Mexico
18/8/2003 Farmers say no to GM crops
19/8/2003 The Royal Society must not be allowed to stifle the GM debate
20/8/2003 Plant physiologist says Monsanto's RR wheat a "folly"
20/8/2003 GM's unwelcome underperformers bring multiple problems
21/8/2003 Conko & Miller - costing the world dear
21/8/2003 Krebs speaks/Monsanto in $700m pollution settlement/etc.
21/8/2003 USA-based Conference of Churches upholds Precautionary Principle on GMOs

FOR THE COMPLETE GM WATCH ARCHIVE: http://www.gmwatch.org/archive.asp

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CAMPAIGN OF THE WEEK:
PILGRIMS TO JOIN TRACTORS AND TROLLEYS AGAINST GM
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Press  Release - Advance notice
PILGRIMS TO JOIN TRACTORS AND TROLLEYS AGAINST GM

Ten individuals will make a personal pilgrimage to London from all corners of the [UK] this October, travelling by foot, tractor and bike to demonstrate their deep opposition to GM crops. Their journeys will take place in the weeks leading up to October 13th when the pilgrims will join hundreds of consumers, environmentalists and farmers at a central London Tractors and Trolleys Parade against GM.

The event is organised by Friends of the Earth, the Five Year Freeze, Genetic Engineering Network and GM-free Cymru.  At least 10 individuals plan to make the pilgrimage to London; with one walking from Scotland, one cycling from Land's End, and one driving a tractor from Pembrokeshire. Others will walk  or cycle from Devon, Yorkshire, Brighton, Cambridge, Essex, and Birmingham. The pilgrimages will take in significant locations en route including GM crop test sites, biotech companies and local farmers markets, and will be supported by local activities and send off actions. [1]

The Tractors and Trolleys Parade comes at the end of a summer of anti-GM activity triggered by the Government's GM Nation debate and coincides with the start of the new parliamentary session when the Government is expected to announce its decision on the commercial growing of GM crops.

Friends of the Earth GM campaigner Clare Oxborrow said: "People in this country are have made it clear that they do not want GM crops in their countryside or GM food on their plates. Pilgrims, consumers and farmers from up and down the country will unite in London in October to show their strong opposition to GM and to demand that Tony Blair makes sure that this year doesn't see the last GM-free harvest."

Gerald Miles, from GM-free Cymru said: "As a farmer I am concerned that no-one knows the impact of GM on our health or the environment. I believe planting GM crops on a commercial scale is not a risk we should be taking especially as consumer demand for non-GM food is overwhelming. GM crops, whether planted commercially or as trials, will inevitably contaminate both non-GM and organic crops.

"If the Government does go ahead with the commercialisation of GM, it will put our seed purchases and chemicals under corporate control and it will be another nail in the farming coffin. I am planning to drive my tractor all the way from Pembrokeshire to London to join the Tractors and Trolleys Parade to draw attention to our concerns".

Opposition to GM remains high and there is deep concern about the impacts of GM crops and food on our health and the environment. Around the country local authorities from Cornwall to Cumbria have voted to act against GM as part of Friends of the Earth GM-free Britain campaign [2].

Notes:
For more information see www.tractorandtrolley.com

[1] Pilgrims' itineraries and biographies will be available from the press office at Friends of the Earth

[2] See www.gmfreebritain.com

Contact:
Clare Oxborrow (Friends of the Earth)  020 7566 1716

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