CALL FOR NEW LAWS AFTER GM RULING

October 16, 2001
PA [via Agnet]
Simon Baker

The UK farming industry was cited as calling on the Government tonight
to introduce new laws to protect GM crop trials in the wake of today's
High Court ruling, which said that public order laws cannot be used
against campaigners who damage or destroy GM crops when no persons who
might be intimidated by their activities are present in the fields.

A spokesman for the Supply Chain Initiative on Modified Agricultural
Crops (SCIMAC), which represents the food industry in the crop trials,
was cited as saying that property must be protected, adding, "There can
be no justification for causing damage to private property, or for
disrupting a legitimate programme of independent scientific evaluation.
Clearly this ruling applies to one particular section of the law, and
would suggest that other legal means of redress must be sought or
introduced to deter future damage to GM crop trials."

He was further cited as criticizing anti-GM food campaigners for
delaying the scientific process of discovering whether the crops were
safe, stating,"SCIMAC remains disappointed that a very small number of
individuals do not have enough confidence in the strength of their own
arguments to let science decide. We have repeatedly condemned the
actions of those responsible for causing damage to trial crops. But we
are also encouraged that their efforts have not deterred growers from
hosting trials or prevented the collection of data to assess the comparative 
biodiversity effects of GM and non-GM crops. We continue to believe that the 
public has a right to know the facts about this technology, based on
independent scientific evidence."