Soil Association backs Meacher's stance on GM crops

The Soil Association has backed former environment minister Michael Meacher's outspoken criticism of the government's position GM food, in yesterday's Independent on Sunday, in which he expressed concern that ministers are "rushing to desired conclusions which cannot be scientifically supported".

Patrick Holden, the Soil Association's Director, said: "Mr Meacher's comments are very worrying because they suggest that the government has already made up its mind on GM. The decision on whether or not to allow the commercial growing of GM crops is a momentous one, potentially one of the most far-reaching that any government has had to take in terms of the environment and public health. Our countryside is not a self-contained laboratory where ill-advised experiments can be abandoned without wider consequences. Once GM crops are grown commercially there will inevitably be contamination of other crops as there has been in North America, and this could introduce serious health problems. The only human GM trial so far found that GM DNA transferred to bacteria in the human gut, while animal trials have seen a doubling of death rates among chickens fed GM feed and the development of gut lesions in rats eating GM potatoes and tomatoes. The public are right to be concerned when the government appears content to play down research findings like these and forge ahead with GM crops before the health effects have been properly assessed."