Meeting held over GM crops scare

 October 15, 2001 5:07pm

 Source: Hull Daily Mail, October 12, 2001, Page 1

 DAVIDTAYLOR

 Meeting held over GM crops scare

 DRIFFIELD: Protesters stepped up their campaign against genetically 
modified crops at a public meeting in Driffield last night.

 One hundred people packed the meeting in the town's Community Centre 
to voice their fears about so-called 'Frankenstein' crops.

 More than 75 per cent of them voted for a resolution opposing the growing 
of GM crops in Driffield.

 Objectors also called on town and parish councils, and the East Riding 
Council, to lead the fight against GM trials.

 The meeting was called after a Government decision to allow a GM
oilseed rape trial on farmland in  the parish of Nafferton, near
Driffield.

 Speakers from both sides addressed the meeting, and then faced a
barrage of questions from  concerned residents.

 Organic grower Dr Gwen Egginton, of Nafferton, said the majority of
people in the Driffield area were against GM crop trials.

 "There are serious concerns, including fears about food safety, and the
effect the trials will have on  the countryside," she said.

 Adrian Bebb, of environment watchdog Friends of the Earth, said the
public wanted a greener form of farming, and not more intensive systems
like GM crops.

 "Food consumers are not convinced that the biotech companies involved
in GM growing are telling  the truth about the crops being safe," he
claimed.

 Concerned people fired questions at Dr Julian Little, of Aventis Crop
Science, which is conducting field-scale trials at Nafferton.

 He said: "The crops are safe to the point were people in the U.S. and
Canada eat them with no problem whatsoever."