Genetically-Modified-Food-Free Wales Undermined

Jonathan Harrington, who is a professional agronomist, admitted today that he imported two varieties of GM modified maize, grew and harvested them, gave seed to his neighbours to grow, and fed the resulting crop to Welsh sheep and cattle.

Now many people are calling for his prosecution because his actions have damaged the GM-free status of Wales, which has marketed milk, meat and vegetables as being GM-free since 2000.

Wales -no longer home of GM-free sheep

Friends of the Earth Cymru (Wales) put out a statement saying that ‘… [Our] concern is that it has entered the food chain without any control, traceability or labelling. Even if it is a small quantity, it means Wales is not GM-free any more.’

Harrington says his actions were the result of frustration because the Welsh assembly, which voted unanimously for GM-free status, refused to re-open discussion on the policy. He says the varieties were on the ‘EU common variety list’ which means that they can be grown legally anywhere in the EU, although stringent rules must be followed that govern the monitoring, labelling and traceability of GM crops.

GM ban has no legal force

The Welsh Assembly has been forced to admit that despite instituting the GM ban, it cannot actually enforce it. However Harrington can definitely be prosecuted for failing to observe the rules relating to the use of GM seeds in the EU.

To many people, living in parts of the world where GM crops are regularly grown and marketed for both animal and human consumption, this may seem a ridiculous overreaction, but the EU has always taken a precautionary approach to GM foods, and in 1999 the UK Government increased the distance allowed between licensed growth of GM and other crops when it was discovered that GM pollen travelled as far as 4.5 kilometres. Marketing the national agriculture as GM-free has been a key feature of the Welsh Assembly’s approach to boosting the Welsh farming economy. Given that over half of American consumers would prefer to buy GM free food if they could identify it, this has been a major selling factor, and to have it undermined by the actions of a single farmer will be a huge blow to the Assembly’s future and may destroy confidence in the status of Welsh foods.

Sheep courtesy of nick sarebi at Flickr under a creative commons licence