We need to increase biodiversity on agricultural land according to a report from one of the House of Commons’ most powerful select committees, the Environmental Audit Committee, which has been investigating GM crops.

The whole farmscale experiment drew attention to the importance of biodiversity in agricultural land,’ said Chairman, Peter Ainsworth, MP. ‘So-called conventional farming is in itself pretty damaging. One of the lessons learned is that we really can improve biodiversity over time.’

The report calls for the biodiversity benchmark to be raised and said that GM crops should be measured, not against intensively farmed crops grown using high levels of pesticides, but against the very best methods of growing, such as organic.

At the time of going to press the Government have not announced their decision on GM crops, but the Committee’s report has come out firmly against GM until further trials have taken place.
‘There is no case for making a decision to commercialise now,’ said Peter Ainsworth. ‘We feel that the farmscale trials were invalid and need to be done again. The trials did not take sufficient account of serious problems with cross-contamination that have occurred in North America and some form of liability regime to deal with this needs to be factored in before commercial growing of GM crops could occur.’

The Committee criticised the length of the trials, which have only lasted three years. In America it has taken four to five years for superweeds to emerge in GM crops. ‘There are much wider issues to do with GM which must be addressed: the effects on human health and the economic implications. The Economic Review concluded that there is little financial benefit to GM,’ he said. ‘We also need to take into account the level of public concern.’ There is little support for GM in the UK. 86 per cent of the UK public are opposed to it, according to a MORI poll. Hampshire County Council is the latest county to go GM free. Now 14 million British people live in areas with a GM free policy.

The evidence against GM is growing around the world. In the Philippines people living close to GM maize fields have been becoming ill and, according to scientists, this may be due to the GM crops. In Germany 12 dairy cows died after being fed GM maize and silage. The rate of milk production decreased in some of the remaining cows and others had to be slaughtered because of unknown illnesses.
All UK supermarkets have told the government that they will not use GM foods. Greenpeace are campaigning to stop GM sneaking into the food chain through the back door via animal feed with their Scary in the Dairy campaign targeting supermarkets. Scientific trials have shown that animals avoid eating GM if possible. According to The Washington Post mice turned up their noses at GM tomatoes.
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