Home > Press releases > Archived press releases > 2001 > Aventis told to destroy GM weeds
5 December 2001
The Government has finally told biotech giant Aventis to take action to stop GM weeds growingwithout consent in a Lincolnshire field. The GM oilseed rape weeds are now flowering and maycontaminate non-GM oil seed rape plants and wild relatives in the area. The Government wasfirst alerted to the incident five days ago by FOE, and has spent the last 5 days dithering overits response.
Friends of the Earth notified the Government last Friday (30 November) that GM 'volunteers'[1] are growing at a site used earlier in the year in the Government's GM Farm ScaleEvaluations at Witham-on-the-Hill, near Grantham [2]. Biotech company Aventis is legallyresponsible for ensuring that this doesn't happen. FOE wrote to the Secretary of State,Margaret Beckett, urging her to order the immediate destruction of the weeds and to prosecuteAventis for breaching their consent to release GMOs.
Pete Riley, GM Campaigner at Friends of the Earth said:
"These GM weeds pose a threat to the environment and must be destroyed. It is astonishing that the Government has taken so long to take any action. It's little wonder that the public has such little confidence in the Government's ability to safeguard the environment from GM pollution.
"These GM plants must be destroyed and the company prosecuted. They should alsostop the GM industry messing about with our countryside and call a moratorium on thegrowing of GM crops."
[1] Grid reference TF 043 173
[2] The weeds are re-growth from GM oil seed rape that was grown earlier in the year.
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