FARMERS UNION WALES

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 05 MARCH 2003

FUW SAYS GM LICENCING IS PUTTING CART BEFORE THE HORSE

GOVERNMENT plans to licence commercial use of genetically modified crops
before results of trials are known and a public debate on the issue held
were "putting the cart before the horse", according to the Farmers' Union of
Wales.

FUW President Bob Parry said it was unbelievable that Environment Secretary
Margaret Beckett had decided the British government was bound by EU law on
the issue.

She believes they have no alternative but to process 18 applications to the
EU for growing and importing crops such as GM maize, oil seed rape, sugar
beet and cotton.

Mr Parry said: "Mrs Beckett says the applications are unstoppable but by
agreeing to process them, just a few months before the publication of
scientific evidence from GM crop trials in England, she is really putting
the cart before the horse.

"The trials are being held in a bid to discover whether GM crops affect the
environment and the number of weeds and insects surviving on farmland. It is
premature to agree to the applications before the results are known," said
Mr Parry.

There is cross-party consensus in the National Assembly against GM crops and
Friends of the Earth Cymru say they have obtained legal opinion from top
lawyers that the Assembly can resist the first step towards
commercialisation of GM crops in the UK.

Mr Parry also stressed that only last month Mrs Beckett doubled to £500,000
the funding of the Government-sponsored debate on the introduction of GM
crops to Britain.

"But what's the point of such a debate if she is accepting Bayer's
application to plant and market GM oil seed rape and Monsanto's request to
import GM maize?" Mr Parry asked.

He pointed out that Mrs Beckett had also promised to take full account of
the views revealed in the debate which she had agreed to extend from June to
September due to the Assembly elections in May.

"It is incredible that Mrs Beckett has agreed to grant these licences to
grow GM crops when the outcome of the debate is still unknown. There's no
point in having the debate after she has approved these applications.

"We believe she has mis-read the legal and moral position of the issue and
she should call off any decisions until after the debate has been held this
summer," said Mr Parry.

Ends

Farmers Union of Wales
Llys Amaeth
Plas Gogerddan
Aberystwyth
Ceredigion
SY23 3BT

Tel  01970 820820
Fax 01970 820821

email: headoffice@fuw.org.uk