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Archived press release

Farmer pulls plug on GM food trials

7 September 1999

The news comes as Friends of the Earth has been granted permission to bring a judicial review against the Government over its decision to allow trials of winter oilseed rape,without a properly obtained consent under the EU Deliberate Release Directive. The case could delay the start of the farm-scale trials for at least a year.

Commenting, FOE Food Campaigner Adrian Bebb said:

"Mr Rose's decision, following detailed discussions with Friends of the Earth, is another hammer blow to the Government's GM testing programme. One of the four planned farm-scale trials will now have to be scrapped. The rest are likely to be delayed by FOE's court action. The GM trials are bad science. They threaten the environment. They have no public support. When will the Government and the biotech companies finally grasp that they are on a hiding to nothing?"