The Guardian Monday July 19th 1999 Protesters trample field after peaceful demo ...................................................................... Three held over GM crop attack Sue Quinn A peaceful demonstration against genetically modified food ended in three arrests yesterday when protesters wearing white "decontamination" suits damaged a 25-acre field of GM oilseed rape. Police helicopters and more than 80 police officers were called when more than 100 protesters "took it upon themselves to decontaminate the field" at Model Farm, near Watlington, Oxfordshire, according to the organisers of the rally, the Genetic Engineering Network (GEN). Those involved in trampling and ripping up the field were among 500 people who converged on the farm, one of Britain's largest trial sites for genetic crops, at the Stop The Crop rally, where speakers condemned the trials. According to the network, the oilseed rape grown at Model Farm was a product from the agrochemical com panyAgrEvo. The plant is designed to tolerate the company's herbicide, named Liberty, which kills almost all weeds, but leaves the modified rape alive. "The half of the field that has the genetically engineered crop has been destroyed. "It has been completely flattened," a network spokesman said. "This whole experiment here has been completely invalidated by the destruction that's been carried out by activists today. "We are pleased about it, absolutely. It is the only option after the breakdown of the political debate. Campaigners have to take it into their own harids and stop the crop themselves." Model Farm, one of six farmscale trial sites being run by the government in the UK was the site of the first attack by protesters on GM crops last year. A small trial plot of - oilseed rape was dug up by activists. A spokeswoman for Greenpeace said the rally had grown from a local protest to one attended by bee keepers, gardeners, organic growers and families from around the country. "At the end of the day, peaceful protesters went down to walk around the GM crop site to protest against it and I would say up to half of the crop was destroyed. We don't control people and it's down to individuals really as to how they wish to show their concern on the day. It wasn't violent." A Thames Valley police spokesman said the three arrested had been charged with causing criminal damage to property. Aerial surveillance footage of the protest, gathered via a helicopter, would be used to "track down and arrest" everyone else thought to have caused damage.