PRESS RELEASE 9 March 2004 - Immediate release
"The Government is irresponsible to ignore Public Opinion on GM" says Church ethics unit
Dr Donald Bruce, Society Religion and Technology Project, Church of Scotland
Tel. 0131-240 2250,
Fax 0131-240 2239, Email: srtp@srtp.org.uk
http://www.srtp.org.uk
or Church of Scotland Press Office 0131- 240 2243
Irresponsibility to the Electorate
The Government has today announced the commercial growing of maize in England, in clear contradiction of the results of its own public consultation last summer. Dr Donald Bruce is Director of the Church of Scotland's Society, Religion and Technology Project, which pioneered the ethical study of GM issues in the mid-1990's. He says: "The Government is behaving irresponsibly towards the electorate in this decision. Last summer's GM Nation consultation made quite clear that public do not want the present round of GM crops to be grown in Britain at this time. There is no public mandate, but the Government has consulted the people and then ignored them. Will the Scottish Parliament show more resolve and listen to the people?"
A Blow to Public Trust
There could be serious effects on public trust, argues Dr Bruce. He helped produce some of the material used in the GM Debate. "We who were involved with the GM debate repeatedly had people saying to us it was all a sham because the Government had already made up its mind. This has now happened. Just when the Government could have sent a message that public views matter, it has done the opposite. This will seriously damage future prospects for seeking public views on biotechnology. The Government has made a bad error of judgement about public trust."
No scientific mandate for these crops
The Church of Scotland is not opposed to GM crops or GM food in principle. A report to the General Assembly this coming May will say that the Government should, however, abide by public opinion on this controversial matter and not allow these particular GM crops to be grown in Scotland or the UK. At its 1999 Assembly, the Kirk said it would support the development of GM only if there are clear human or environmental benefits. This is not the case with this GM maize. The scientific justification to grow GM maize is flawed because, although the farm-scale evaluations showed improved biodiversity with the GM maize, the comparison was made with a very aggressive herbicide which is about to be withdrawn. It is not scientifically proven that GM maize would improve bio-diversity if compared with more acceptable weed killers.
Capitulating to US and EC pressure
The evidence of the GM Nation Debate is that while people are not absolutely opposed to GM, they do not think the risks have been sufficiently understood to go ahead. Hence there is no economic market for UK growers. People also think there is too much influence from multi-national companies and from US pressure to threaten a trade war. But the Government has caved in to international pressure instead of listening to its own people.
Dr Bruce is Director of Society Religion and Technology Project of the Church of Scotland, and co-editor of the seminal study Engineering Genesis in 1998. He worked with the New Economics Foundation to produce the DEMOCS card game for the GM Nation debate to encourage more of the non-aligned general public to take part and with Scottish Civic Forum and The Food Standards Agency in Scotland on their GM food consultation.
For more on GM food, see our GM Food and Crops web pages
Back to Contents
Back to Top of Page
Go to SRT GM Food and Crops Pages
Go to SRT Website Map
Go to SRT Contents Page
Return to SRT Home Page
