GM & Organic Can't Co-exist. HRH for GM-free UK

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Wednesday, 30 July 2003

I keep promising myself that I will not put up any more GM stories for a while, but there are two items today that I can't ignore:
On Radio 4's Today Programme Michael Meacher said evidence of "massive" cross-contamination in Canada shows the UK must make a stark choice between growing organic or genetically-modified crops:
"The buzz word in Britain is that we can have 'co-existence' between the GM sector and the organic or conventional sector. What Canada shows, who has been trying to do this for the last seven years, is that it is absolutely impossible.
"You have to make a choice, and the choice frankly is: are we going to go for GM - for which there is no market and no-one wants to buy - at the expense of organic, which people do want to buy and for which there is a tremendous market? You cannot have both."

HRH Prince of Wales said yesterday that GM crops should be banned in Britain. Speaking in Cardiff the Prince said, "We need a GM-free Wales and a GM-free Britain as well, for that matter. We simply do not know the long-term consequences for human health and the wider environment, of releasing plants bred in this way."
Source: www.icwales.co.uk