GM Crops Row Set to Erupt Again 

10 November 2003 - The Scotsman

By Amanda Brown, Environment Correspondent, PA News. 


The row over GM technology is set to erupt in the Commons tomorrow when 
a Labour MP will demand to know why the Government is backing a new EU 
approval of genetically modified sweetcorn.

The call will come from Joan Ruddock (Lewisham/Deptford) in a Westminster 
Hall debate following last month’s results of the three year field scale 
trials which showed that growing certain GM crops is worse for wildlife 
than conventional varieties.

Ms Ruddock said that too often the “GM debate has been characterised as 
a debate between scientists who understand the issues and non-Governmental 
organisations and the public who are both ignorant and unjustifiably alarmed.

“The Prime Minister has repeatedly told us that the issue will be decided 
on the basis of sound science. I do not accept that science is the sole 
criterion by which the issue is decided, but it is obvious that the position 
of those who support commercialisation of GM crops in the UK would be greatly 
strengthened if the Science Review were comprehensively reassuring about GM 
food and crops. It is not.”

MPs are expected to pose a series of questions to the Minister, concentrating 
on areas where the Science Review has pointed to gaps in knowledge and/or 
controversy.

Ms Ruddock is expected to press the Minister on why the Government is supporting 
a new EU approval of GM sweetcorn (B111) when research for the Austrian 
Government has pointed to inadequacies in the EU testing procedures for GM food 
and crops.