*Guarding organics from GM*

By: Carwyn Jones, Western Mail

1 March 2005

Wales is sticking to its guns in the fight to protect organic and 
conventional farming from the commercialisation of GM crops.

Behind the news headlines and public debates, the Assembly is at the 
heart of a strong movement urging European Union to recognise our concerns.

We are a founder member of a network of regions across Europe which is 
growing rapidly, both in membership and in influence. The network 
consists of 20 regions within a number of European countries, including 
Austria, Italy, France and Germany, and more are joining all the time.

At a meeting in Florence last month, the European Regions Network sent a 
clear and visible signal to the world that its members are concerned 
about the potential impact of GM crops. We signed an important charter 
which contains a number of declarations, one of which presses the EC to 
acknowledge the “polluter pays” principle.

All members of the network recognise the threat that GM crops pose to 
the reputation of our respected traditional and organic farming methods. 
The Welsh agriculture strategy is about competing on quality, strong 
branding and adding value through local processing.

Our agri-environment schemes, organic sector and quality assured produce 
are key to this and I am commited to protecting them from GM. For this 
reason, we are pushing ahead with a policy on GM that is different from 
the rest of UK.

As I have said before, within existing legislation it is not possible to 
declare Wales GM-Free. We have to work around this and pursue legal 
avenues to ensure we can apply the most restrictive approach to GMO 
cultivation possible. And we are doing this in Wales, developing ideas 
and learning from other network members who take a similar view.

For example, we took action to protect organic and conventional growers 
through introducing legally enforceable separation distances.

As Minister, I have to act within the legislative framework, for two 
main reasons.

The first is simply one of credibility within Europe, and the second is 
arguably more important and concerns the practical implementation of 
coexistence policies.

It is vitally important that we co-operate as much as possible on 
coexistence measures with rest of the UK so that we can safeguard 
farmers on our borders from the potential for GM contamination.

The development of coexisting measures is underway. We are taking a 
science-based approach and will be ready to invite views through a 
consultation exercise later this year.

I can assure readers that, with my European Network colleagues, Wales is 
determined to safeguard consumer choice and confidence.