1.In hot water, MP fan of Frankenstein food
2.Mr Frankenfood – Tory MP George Freeman
3.More GM breakthroughs that never were!
NOTE: GM promoters claiming non-GM success stories as GM breakthroughs is a chronic problem, particularly on the BBC (item 3). For more on the BBC's inadequate coverage of the industry's current GM push, see:
http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/14026
Incidentally, the misleading piece by George Freeman in New Statesman magazine that the Daily Mail refers to (item 1) is in a special supplement "supported by Crop Protection Association" – read GM/pesticide industry. CPA's members include: BASF, Bayer, Dow, DuPont UK, Monsanto and Syngenta. And two of the articles in the NS supplement are even written by the Crop Protection Association's CEO, Dominic Dyer.
http://www.newstatesman.com/sites/default/files/files/20120618foodscience.pdf
http://www.cropprotection.org.uk/members.aspx
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1.In hot water, MP fan of Frankenstein food who got it wrong on M&S broccoli by saying it was genetically modified
Sean Poulter
Daily Mail, 26 June 2012
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2165209/In-hot-water-MP-fan-Frankenstein-food-got-wrong-M-amp-S-broccoli-saying-genetically-modified.html
A leading supporter of 'Frankenfood' has caused outrage with bogus claims that a healthy broccoli sold by Marks & Spencer is genetically modified.
On the BBC's Today programme yesterday, Tory MP George Freeman suggested the broccoli, said to protect against cancer and heart disease, was an example of how GM food could improve health.
But the variety, called Beneforte and available at M&S, is in fact the product of natural plant breeding methods.
His claims were all the more startling as M&S has had a ban on GM foods in place for more than ten years, and was one of the first UK retailers to take such a stand.
Yesterday, it accused Mr Freeman, who has in the past received fees from companies which promote biotechnology, of misleading the public about the origins of its broccoli.
A spokesman for the company described the MP for Mid-Norfolk as 'misinformed' and said its position on GM was unchanged.
Pro-GM Mr Freeman, who is chairman of the all-party group on agricultural science and technology, was given free-rein to list what he claimed were the benefits of GM technology as part of the segment on Radio 4 yesterday.
He said: 'We have here the potential to give the developing world crops that can be grown in areas where there is drought; pesticide-resistant crops.'
Significantly, he added: 'Of course, here in the UK, there is potential for crops that enhance health. We have seen the new broccoli now on sale in M&S that tackles heart disease.'
His claims are repeated in an article he wrote for the New Statesman magazine about the benefits of GM farming, published last week.
In it, he said: 'Already we have ... the health-enhancing broccoli that is now available in some of our supermarkets.
'Indeed, this illustrates one of the most exciting applications of genetically modified technology that of helping us develop disease-preventing food products.'
No British supermarket is selling GM broccoli.
An M&S spokesman said: 'I am afraid that Mr Freeman is misinformed and therefore being misleading.
'Our position on GM remains unchanged and very clear. M&S is the only UK retailer to maintain a non-GM policy for all food ingredients and for the feed given to animals producing the fresh meat, poultry, farmed fish and milk that we sell.
'The broccoli was developed by naturally cross breeding a wild variety of Sicilian broccoli with a common variety of broccoli.'
M&S introduced its ban on GM food in 1999. The move came in response to concerns about the impact of GM crops on the countryside and the effect of the resulting food on human health.
Most other supermarkets later introduced similar policies.
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2.Mr Frankenfood
Daily Mail, 26 June 2012
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2165209/In-hot-water-MP-fan-Frankenstein-food-got-wrong-M-amp-S-broccoli-saying-genetically-modified.html
TORY MP George Freeman has a long history of avid support for GM technology.
The Norfolk MP sits on the Advisory Board of the Norwich Research Park, where much of the UK's biotech research is carried out.
The park is home to the John Innes Centre and the Sainsbury Laboratory, where millions of pounds of taxpayers' money have been spent developing GM plants.
The Parliamentary register of interests reveals the MP has many past connections with the biotech industry and GM supporters.
He was chief executive and chairman of 4D Biomedical Ltd, which styles itself as experts in biotech and experimental medicine, until last autumn. He stepped down after being appointed by the Government as an official advisor on so-called Life Science policy, which includes GM.
Mr Freeman has also been a member of the advisory board of the Iceni Seed Challenge Fund, set up to support the commercialisation of new technologies, and was paid fees for consultancy work.
He has suggested it would be 'madness' not to accept GM.
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3.More GM breakthroughs that never were!
Thanks to the lack of success of GM's silver bullets, non-GM success stories keep being claimed as GM breakthroughs in order to try and sell GM.
A classic instance is provided by the UK Government's former chief scientist, Professor Sir David King, who has repeatedly used non-GM breakthroughs as evidence of why we would be mad not to embrace GM.
In one case, just like Tory MP George Freeman, King used an interview on the BBC's Today programme to make one of these false claims. According to King, a big crop yield increase in Africa was all down to GM, when in fact it didn't involve the use of any GM technology at all.
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=8618
In another BBC programme, King claimed a big success for GM flood resistant rice when what he was referring to was in reality a non-GM crop!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/dec/09/david-king-gm-crops
GM promoters like King and Freeman are, of course, desperate to provide compelling examples of why we need to go down the GM route. But far from their examples showing that we need to embrace GM, they show the exact opposite. We need to stop being distracted by GM and to get the funding and support behind the non-GM solutions to the problems we need to address.
For more on the success of non-GM solutions, see:
www.gmwatch.org/component/content/article/31-need-gm/12319
For more GM fairytales
http://www.gmwatch.org/gm-myths
And George Freeman is far from the first to try and spin healthy broccoli as a GM breakthrough. It's actually been going on for years!
http://ngin.tripod.com/broccoli.htm