GM ban would be 'illegal'

Monday, 19 May 2003 12:00 AM

The Environment Minister, Michael Meacher, has warned that the Government may have to allow the commercial growing of genetically modified crops despite widespread public concern about their safety.

Mr Meacher told BBC Radio 4's 'Farming Today' programme that a ban on GM crops would be illegal if the science was to find that there are no risks for using the technology.

The Minister insisted that 'the key and sole criteria' on whether to push ahead with the commercialisation of GM crops was whether they were proven harmful or not to the environment and human health.

'We have to act in accordance with the law, and the law at the present moment is set down in the EU directive', he said, confirming that European Union regulation was 'not based on public acceptability'.

Mr Meacher accepted that it remained 'perfectly possible' that the UK government would have to move ahead with the commercialisation process despite significant public opposition to the technology. He remarked, 'I think that democracy should always proceed on the basis of the maximum public consent'.

Speaking on the same programme, Professor Malcolm Hooper of Sunderland University argued that there was a 'worrying lack of transparency' surrounding GM crop research which is damaging public perception and running the risk of Government intervention.

Professor Hooper commented, 'I would think that if some companies are not prepared to engage in this transparent process, then they will have to suffer the consequences of government legislation which will say no to the products that they are advocating if they are simply making sweeping statements.'

The US has begun proceedings in the World Trade Organisation that challenges the European Union's moratorium on the commercialisation of GM technology. The environmental concern group, Friends of the Earth called for the 'staunch defence' of the moratorium to stop President George Bush and American businesses deciding what Europe can get to eat.

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