permaculture

["John Schinnerer" <john@eco-living.net>]

Aloha,

And here's some good news - UK citizens are raising a ruckus over the
government's attempt to shove GMOs down their throats...folks in the UK, is
this story representative, or...?

cheers,
John S.
--------------
>
>  http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/environment/story.jsp?story=436640
> Blair forced to scale back his plan to introduce GM farming
> By Geoffrey Lean and Jo Dillon
> 24 August 2003
>
>
> Tony Blair is drastically scaling down his plans to introduce GM farming
in
> Britain in the wake of the Hutton inquiry, the Independent on Sunday can
reveal.
>
> Senior officials at the centre of the issue concede that the Prime
Minister
> has accepted that it would be politically "too risky" to force through
widespread commercial planting of GM crops in the teeth of public
opposition, following the catastrophic collapse in public trust following
the Iraq War and Dr David Kelly's apparent suicide.
>
> The Government's formal decision on the technology, expected next month,
will now not be taken before the end of the year "at the earliest",
official
> sources say. And ministers and officials are now going out of their way to
insist that the Prime Minister is not "gung-ho" about it, even though his
personal enthusiasm - coupled with attacks on GM sceptics as
> "anti-science" - has long defined the Government's position.
>
> The Prime Minister was in Chequers this weekend preparing himself for his
appearance before the Hutton Inquiry on Thursday.
>
> In response to intense pressure as the Hutton Inquiry continues to lay
bare
> the inner workings of the Blair government, the Prime Minister is changing

> his tactics. His new plan, sources say, is to secure a limited and heavily
regulated introduction of some GM crops - rather than the previously
expected blanket approval - in the hope of expanding them later. But there
is concern in Whitehall that even this may be unachievable.
>
> Ministers and officials have been shocked by the extent of public
opposition
> revealed by the Government's "public debate" on GM over the last few
months.
> Originally denounced by critics as a sham, it has in fact stimulated over
600 public meetings around Britain, and led to 36,000 people registering
their views on the debate website.
>
> The breakdown of the public reaction has yet to be published, but it is
believed to demonstrate widespread hostility to GM crops and foods and
show
> that the Government, the biotechnology industry, and the largely pro-GM
scientific establishment have signally failed to convince Britons.
>
> Their case has also been severely shaken by two reports from the heart of
Government last month, which ministers originally believed would give them
a
> green light.
>
> The first, from the Cabinet Office, concluded that growing GM crops would
provide no immediate benefit to consumers or the economy, exploding the
Prime Minister's repeated insistence that they were economically
essential.
>
> The second - by a scientific panel led by Dr David King, the government's
chief scientist - concluded that it would be impossible to grow some GM
crops without them contaminating organic produce, reinforcing mounting
ministerial concern about alienating the rapidly growing numbers of
consumers opting for the chemical-free food.
>
> Meanwhile the third leg of the Government's case - that GM crops would
help
> feed the world - has been undermined by denials by Oxfam, Action Aid,
Christian Aid and other charities at the cutting edge of the battle
against
> hunger.
---------------------

John Schinnerer - MA, Whole Systems Design
------------------------------------------
- Eco-Living -
Cultural & Ecological Designing
People - Place - Learning - Integration
john@eco-living.net
http://eco-living.net