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GM GIANT CLAMS UP AT SEED HEARING

03 Oct 2000

Biotech Giant Clams Up At GM Seed List Hearing
Friends of the Earth has written to Agriculture Secretary Nick Brown after "conflicting statements" on GM trials at Hood Barton, Dartington, Devon in 1998. Information from the trials of Chardon LL (a GM fodder maize) is being used to back an application to add the crop to the National Seed List - the final legal hurdle before it can be commercially grown in the UK. The Government is currently hearing opposition to this proposal at a National Seed List Hearing which is expected to last 10 weeks.

In 1998 a trial of GM Chardon LL was destroyed by activists. At the time it was stated that the whole trial, and its results, had been lost. However, data from the site was used to support an application to have Chardon LL added to the National Seed List.

At today's hearing Peter Roderick, Legal Advisor at Friends of the Earth, attacked Aventis - the seed company seeking Chardon LL's addition to the National Seed List - for refusing to provide witnesses for cross-examination at the Hearing. He said:

"We will present our case scientifically, and we will argue rationally and legally. And we will, unlike Aventis, expose our case to cross-examination. It is hugely ironic that it is those of us who have been accused of being unscientific and hysterical who are prepared to expose our arguments to careful questioning and structured examination: whilst the first such opportunity for the biotech industry in this country to do the same is flunked. Disdainfully flunked."

Peter Roderick continued:

"Let me give a flavour of some of the questions that need to be answered. What went on at Dartington? How many trials were planted? One or two? What about the other trial centres? And if there's two, how do you decide which ones the real National List Trial, and which one's the 'decoy'? And if the 'decoy' doesn't get damaged, how do you decide which one to accept for decision-making purposes? Is there any valid consent for these secret trials ? Or has there been a criminal offence in planting secretly? How come a company employee told the High Court on oath in 1998 that one of that year's trials was being discontinued, but now we see no such thing?"