A new legal opinion was published yesterday, which said that the government’s proposals on how to prevent conventional and organic crops from contamination from GM crops are legally and ‘fundamentally flawed’. This legal opinion was prepared by two of the UK’s leading European law specialists for The Soil Association, Friends of the Earth and GM Freeze.
Public opposition to GM crops is being overridden by a government determined to back the industry, Michael Meacher, the former environment minister, has claimed.
His remarks came yesterday in response to the launch of a government consultation over whether GM crops can “co-exist” with non-GM crops in the British countryside. Those who want to take part must have their answers in by today.
Early GM experiments met huge opposition in the UK, with the result that no GM crops have been grown commercially in Britain. The same is true through most of Europe, and environmental groups claimed yesterday that what the government is now proposing could be illegal under EU law.
But the government’s view is that there is “no scientific case” for a total ban. Mr Meacher, and other campaigners, suspect that the Environment Secretary, David Miliband, is looking for a way to overcome public opposition.
“This consultation is the Government’s latest