Ananova - 23 July 2001
 
GM food protesters dump crop at ministry 

Environmental campaigners have dumped 50 large bags of GM maize outside 
the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Five protesters said they had uprooted half the crop of maize at a site 
in Preston Wynne, Herefordshire, run by biotechnology firm Aventis.

They spent four hours uprooting the crop in the early hours and another 
five hours driving it to London.

The site is one of 25 maize farm scale trials being undertaken by the 
Government, said the campaigners, who were wearing white decontamination suits.

Rowan Tilly, who led the group, delivered a letter to the Defra reception desk 
and demanded an end to GM trials. The letter was addressed to environment 
minister Michael Meacher.

Mr Tilly, 43, from Brighton, said: "The GM crop in the trial is Aventis' 
herbicide tolerant glufosinate fodder maize.

"The crop is due to flower within the next few weeks and will spread genetic 
pollution over a wide area contaminating the maize crops of local farmers and 
gardeners."

But a Defra spokesman rejected their claims that the GM trials were harmful 
to the environment. He said: "The Government have carried out extensive tests 
to see whether there's any affect of weed killers on wild life, affecting the 
numbers of birds and bees.

"These farm scale trials wouldn't be going on if there was any harm to wild life. 
They've passed all UK and EU regulations and they're safe."

A spokesman for Aventis confirmed that one of their sites at Preston Wynne had been 
damaged but was unable to confirm whether the maize deposited outside Defra had been 
grown by Aventis, or if it was genetically modified.

Story filed: 16:15 Monday 23rd July 2001