European activists link up against GM wheat

Around 200 protestors from across the UK, Ireland, France and Belgium have been marching against the return of open air GM field testing.

Take the Flour Back group joined with Volunteer Reapers1 of France to make their way towards the site before being stopped by police lines.

On Friday, an order was passed to prevent the protestors from entering because of contamination fears.

Earlier in May, NFU President Peter Kendall condemned the vandalism of the country’s first ever GM wheat trial following a break-in.

"I am sorry to say that there still is a widespread view that farming is a low-skilled, low-tech backward looking industry", Mr Kendall said. "The truth is that much of British agriculture is using cutting-edge technology and the application of science will determine our future."

The NFU President highlighted the need to feed 9 billion people by 2050. He said there is a growing concern and "urgency" to start dealing with this issue now against a backdrop of pressures on natural resources and climate change.

But Take the Flour Back group campaigner Kate Bell said "at the beginning of a new resistance to this obsolete technology, we see GM hidden behind a fortress".

"We wanted to do the responsible thing and remove the threat of GM contamination, sadly it wasn’t possible to do that effectively today. However, we stand arm in arm with farmers and growers from around the world, who are prepared to risk their freedom to stop the imposition of GM crops."

East of England MEP Stuart Agnew threw his weight behind the scientists at Rothamsted Research.

Mr Agnew said "Wheat is vulnerable to aphid attack immediately it emerges from the ground in the autumn. If aphids are not controlled at that time, the crop becomes very susceptible to Barley Yellow Dwarf Virus which is very widespread at the moment and causes the leaves of the wheat to go a bright orange colour in the following June, with the affected plants producing no grain at all."

"The only practical defence currently available is to spray once or twice with an insecticide or apply an insecticide to the seed. Unfortunately, these methods also kill non-target insects at the same time. Beyond this, is the risk of the aphids becoming resistant to the insecticide, which is a most worrying trend across the world."

"Therefore, it is vital that this crop is allowed to be properly assessed and I wish to place on record my support for the Rothamsted scientists and their work on this experimental aphid-repelling GM wheat crop that could prove to be a huge step forward in environmentally friendly protection of crops from virus diseases. I sincerely hope that the activists, who have been invited to an open discussion of the issue by Rothamsted Research, will reconsider their refusal to attend."

The site was off limits and guarded by a perimeter of police officers preventing the protestors from entering the land.

A GM free picnic was arranged around the perimeter which included speakers opposing the trial from various organisations and farmers.

"Experimenting with staple crops is a serious threat to food security. Our resilience comes from diversity, not the monocultures of GM" said Gathuru Mburu, co-ordinator of the African Biodiversity Network, who spoke on the issue of global food supply.

"Beneath the rhetoric that GM is the key to feeding a hungry world, there is a very different story - a story of control and profit. The fact is that we need a diversity of genetic traits in food crops in order to survive worsening climates. Above all, people need to have control over their seeds" he said.