95 per cent of more than 11,000 public respondents' to a Government consultation, are opposed to Government proposals to grow GM crops alongside conventional and organic, it was revealed today [1]. Friends of the Earth said the Government must now listen to public calls for much stricter `co-existence' rules, including keeping GM contamination under the minimum detection level of 0.1% and ensuring that GM companies are responsible for any economic liability caused by contamination.
The results were published today by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs [DEFRA], following a consultation last year. DEFRA says it will await the results of `important' further research and has promised to commission new research in the light of overwhelming public concern. [2].
Friends of the Earth Food Campaigner Kirtana Chandrasekaran said:
"The public has clearly seen that the Government's pathetic proposals will allow GM crops to be grown throughout Britain with little regard for the impact that GM contamination might have on farmers or consumers. The Government may be willing to bend over backwards to accommodate the biotech industry, but the public is not. Ministers must now go back to the drawing board. They must accept that basing their proposals on unacceptably high levels of GM contamination is fundamentally wrong.
See full Article.
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