Rob Edwards

UK environment minister breaches agreement with Scotland on GM

for Sunday Herald, 27 April 2014

The UK environment secretary, Owen Paterson, has admitted breaching an agreement to make Scotland’s opposition to genetically modified (GM) crops clear to European ministers. 

He promised the Scottish environment minister, Paul Wheelhouse, that he would say that Scotland took a different view on GM from Westminster during important negotiations at the European Union’s Environment Council in Brussels. But he then failed to do so because he used the wrong speaking notes.

Under interrogation by MSPs on the Scottish Parliament’s rural affairs committee last week, Paterson said it was “unfortunate” that he hadn’t said what had been agreed. “I talked to Paul beforehand, we agreed the speaking note and I have to confess I think I read the preceding one,” he said. 

Paterson is a keen GM fan, telling a farmers’ conference in Oxford in January that Europe could become “the museum of world farming” if countries failed to embrace GM crops. The Scottish government, however, is opposed to the cultivation of GM crops, believing they could damage the environment and threaten the reputation of Scotland’s food and drink industry.

Row over ‘suppressed’ study suggesting rats were killed by GM food

from Sunday Herald, 01 September 2013

A scientific study suggesting that genetically modified (GM) food killed rats has been “suppressed” because of a successful lobbying operation by multinational biotech corporations, say environmental campaigners.

The study, carried out by a team of researchers under Professor Gilles-Eric Seralini at the University of Caen in northern France, ran into an immediate barrage of condemnation when it was published. As a result, it has been largely ignored by the media, and is mostly unknown in the UK.

But campaign groups are now seeking to redress that by launching a series of public meetings across the UK starring Professor Seralini. He is a molecular biologist and president of the scientific board of the Committee of Independent Research and Information on Genetic Engineering.

The first event, in what been dubbed “GM Health Risk Week”, is due to take place in Edinburgh University on Monday. Then on Tuesday Seralini is giving a briefing in the Scottish Parliament.

Seralini’s study was published in the peer-reviewed journal, Food and Chemical Toxicology, in September last year. It reported the results of feeding groups of laboratory rats GM maize or its associated herbicide, both made by the US company, Monsanto.

The study concluded that over two years the rats suffered increased rates of organ damage, tumours and premature death. The researchers blamed GM organisms and the herbicide, concluding that both “must be evaluated very carefully by long term studies to measure their potential toxic effects.”

Hundreds of thousands of suicides blamed on big company farming

from Sunday Herald, 15 May 2011
Pastapur, India

Big business agriculture promoted by western corporations is to blame for up to a quarter of a million farmers committing suicide over the last ten years, according to community leaders in India.

Poor farmers are forced to take out big loans to buy expensive pesticides and fertilisers, and to dig wells for the increasing amounts of water they need. But when their crops fail, or their wells dry up, they fall into debt - and many thousands kill themselves out of desperation.

That is the bleak picture painted by P.V. Satheesh, the director of the Deccan Development Society, which supports community farming in one of the poorest parts of rural India. Sitting barefoot with his laptop in the shade outside his house in the village of Pastapur, in the Zaheerabad region of Andhra Pradesh, he gets angry about what’s happening.

Farmers are “misled” into believing the promise that the high-input, chemical-intensive, single-crop agriculture of the so-called ‘green revolution’ is their salvation, he says. So when it fails, they end up trapped in a debt spiral that too often leads to despair and suicide.

“Those that say that the green revolution will save the world should come and see the hundreds of thousands who have committed suicide in India," he warns. “The green revolution is a downhill slide into disaster.”

Confrontation looms between Edinburgh and London over GM food

from Sunday Herald, 18 July 2010

The UK government’s “respect” agenda towards Scotland could be wrecked by disagreements over growing genetically modified (GM) foods, following a new move by the European Commission (EC).

The EC last week proposed a new law which would enable countries to either back or ban GM crops, sometimes known as “Frankenstein foods”. The Scottish National Party (SNP) fears that this will allow pro-GM ministers in London to force GM crops onto an unwilling Scotland.

The EC proposal is designed to end a 12-year split between states which has virtually frozen GM farming across Europe. Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Hungary and Ireland have banned GM crops, but Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, and the UK are in favour.

The UK’s new environment secretary, the Conservative MP Caroline Spelman, has pronounced herself a fan of GM foods “in the right circumstances”. Before she became a minister, she was director of a pro-GM food and biotechnology consultancy for 20 years.

The SNP MEP, Alyn Smith, alleged that the EC proposal “totally undermined” the Scottish Parliament and government. “The respect agenda, such as it is, will be thrown out the window if the resolutely pro-GM coalition in London authorises cultivation in Scotland against the clear wishes of the majority in Holyrood and the nation as a whole,” he said.

Westminster must wake up on GM, says minister

from Sunday Herald, 14 September 2008

Scottish ministers are putting mounting pressure on the UK government to end its support for GM crops now that Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland have all agreed to become GM-free.

In the wake of the latest GM crop contamination revealed on Friday, the Scottish environment minister, Michael Russell, is urging Westminster to alter its stance to take account of the strong opposition to genetically modified crops in all the devolved administrations.

His call has been welcomed by anti-GM groups, though they argue he should go further. The GM concordat agreed by the devolved administrations just before the last Scottish election should now be re-negotiated, they say.

GM seeds: be very afraid

from Green Pages, 13 February 2008

First there was Terminator. Now there is Exorcist and Zombie. And farmers should certainly be afraid. Very afraid.

For these are not just some Hollywood horror movies. They are the nicknames given to the new genetic seed technologies being developed by industries and governments which threaten to deprive farmers in developing countries of their traditional rights to harvest the seeds from the plants they grow.

The development, patenting and potential use of such technologies is just one sign of the mushrooming influence of multinational corporations on the global seed business. The relentless drive for more profits from plants, critics say, is endangering the natural diversity of crops on which humanity has depended for centuries.

Government to back bid to ban GM crops in Europe

from Sunday Herald, 25 November 2007

The Scottish government will this week make an unprecedented intervention in Brussels to try and help ban genetically modified (GM) crops throughout Europe.

The environment minister, Michael Russell, is planning to back a controversial bid by the European environment commissioner, Stavros Dimas, to block applications to grow GM maize from three multinational companies.

The move is likely to heighten tensions with Westminster, which has been increasingly irritated by Holyrood's anti-GM stance. It will also annoy the GM industry - but delight environmentalists who want to see Europe stay GM-free.

GM foods backed by Scotland's science advisor

from Sunday Herald, 24 December 2006

People are being urged by Scotland's new chief scientific adviser to overcome their fears and embrace genetically modified (GM) food as an answer to poverty, hunger and toxic pollution.

Professor Anne Glover, herself a genetic engineer, is urging consumers to ignore labels like "Frankenstein foods" because they are misleading and damaging. The potential benefits of GM crops are "huge", she says, and the risks "extremely small".

Finnie warned on legality of GM guidelines

from Sunday Herald, 29 October 2006

If Scottish ministers follow the example of Westminster on new rules for growing GM crops they will break European law.

Legal experts have concluded that the regime proposed by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) in London to prevent organic food from being contaminated by GM crops grown nearby is “fundamentally flawed”.

Sale of illegal GM rice sanctioned by food watchdog

from Sunday Herald, 17 September 2006

Rice that has been illegally contaminated with genetically modified (GM) organisms from the United States is being sold in Scotland because the government’s food safety watchdog has failed to recommend the product’s withdrawal.

A number of supermarkets are following the advice of the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and leaving suspect GM rice on their shelves. Others, however, have said they are withdrawing the rice due to consumer concerns.

Monsanto boss urged to quit Scots quango over GM bribery case

from Sunday Herald, 09 January 2005

THE Scottish boss of the genetically modified (GM) crops multinational Monsanto is under pressure to quit as a business adviser to Scottish Enterprise after his company admitted to paying $750,000 (£401,000) in bribes to government officials in Indonesia.

Should scientists tamper with nature?

talk to Royal Society, Edinburgh, 09 November 2004

My business is words, so I want to start - and end - my short contribution to this evening's discussion by talking about words. Some of you may know this passage from the book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible:

"I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all."

A conflict of interest

comment from New Scientist, 26 June 2004

NUCLEAR power, genetically modified crops, prescription drugs, passive smoking - name the debate, and you will find opinion pieces on it by the most senior figures in science in newspapers and magazines across the world. What is bewildering, if not scandalous, is that some of these supposedly independent experts conceal their relationship with the industries they are writing about. Now an even more insidious trend is emerging: scientists are signing articles they haven't even written.

Farmers snub GM-free policy

from Sunday Herald, 14 March 2004

Farmers are likely to ignore requests by the Scottish Executive to ban genetically modified crops, jeopardising attempts by ministers to keep Scotland GM-free.

Scotland defies Blair and puts block on GM

from Sunday Herald, 07 March 2004

The Scottish Executive will defy the Blair government by rejecting genetically modified crops, which this week will get the go-ahead in England.

UK GM-free food 'is contaminated'

from Sunday Herald, 29 June 2003
 
Food on sale in Britain labelled "GM-free" has been contaminated with genetically modified soya made by US multinational Monsanto, a new survey by the food safety watchdog reveals.

Report claims FSA boss 'is pro-GM'

from Sunday Herald, 09 March 2003

The credibility and independence of Scotland's food safety watchdog have been thrown into doubt in the wake of accusations that its top official is in favour of genetically modified food and a friend of big business.

GM expert warns of cancer risk from crops

from Sunday Herald, 08 December 2002
 
EATING genetically modified (GM) food could give you cancer. That is the stark warning today from one of Scotland's leading experts in tissue diseases.

Parliament GM adviser 'should resign'

from Sunday Herald, 02 June 2002
 
Environment minister Ross Finnie's senior adviser on GM crop safety faces calls to resign after being accused of overlooking major flaws in a study by GM company Aventis.

Finnie fights bid to gag GM protesters

from Sunday Herald, 26 May 2002

WESTMINSTER'S plan to remove the right to object to genetically modified (GM) food has been rejected by Ross Finnie, the Scottish parliament's environment and rural development minister, putting him on a collision course with the Blair government.