Press  Release
Immediate release: Monday 10 November

NEW GM SWEETCORN BLOCKED IN EUROPE

Friends of the Earth has welcomed the decision by European 
countries not to approve a new GM sweetcorn despite the official 
UK position in favour of the controversial food. An EU regulatory 
committee today failed to support a proposal by the European Commission 
to allow the GM sweetcorn to be imported as food, meaning the four year 
moratorium on new GM foods stays intact.

However, Friends of the Earth has hit out at the UK Government and its 
representative on this Committee, the Food Standards Agency, for supporting 
the GM sweetcorn when it has not yet responded to the GM public debate. The 
public debate revealed widespread opposition to GM crops and food, with 86% of
people in the UK not wanting to eat GM food.

Friends of the Earth has raised further concerns about the GM sweetcorn, 
Bt11, which has been genetically modified to produce its own insecticide. In
particular:

* New European regulations on labelling and traceability of GM ingredients are 
still not in place

* The proposal bypasses the new European GMO approval process which is more 
thorough and transparent and includes compulsory post-approval monitoring
of health effects.

* The proposal avoids the new European Food Safety Authority that has to take 
into account not only the short and long-term effects, but also effects
on future generations, probable cumulative toxic effects and the effect on 
health sensitive consumers.

Friends of the Earth’s GM campaigner Clare Oxborrow said:

“We welcome this decision by European countries not to support the outrageous 
proposal to allow GM sweetcorn into our shops. This is a victory for common sense.  
But once again the UK Government has chosen to back the biotech industry over the
British public. It has gone behind our backs supporting this GM food when it hasn’t 
even responded to the GM public debate, which makes a mockery of the debate and the 
Government promise to listen.

People in the UK have made it crystal clear that they don’t want to eat GM food. 
The Government must now stand up for the public, stand up to the business interests 
of the US Government and the biotech industry and reject GM food and crops."