GM Free Cymru welcomes GM warning from Prince Charles
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/08/12/eacharles112.xml
Prince Charles has today expressed grave concerns about the impact of GM crops on the environment and on farmers across the world, in an interview for the Daily Telegraph (1). Supporting his comments on behalf of GM Free Cymru and the GM Free Wales Alliance, spokesman Brian John said:
“Prince Charles is absolutely right to have raised this issue now, in the midst of a sustained, cynical and sinister PR campaign from the GM industry, based on the myth that GM crops and foods are somehow going to solve the world's hunger crisis. Shamefully, the Westminster government and many previously sensible politicians have been swept along by this hype.
“The Prince, who has studied this issue for many years, knows that GM crops will not solve the food crisis – and he is right to highlight the environmental damage associated with industrial high-input monocultures. These farming systems depend upon high -- and ever increasing -- chemical inputs which are unsustainable. They damage biodiversity, and while Monsanto and the other big corporations peddle their "GM miracles" they systematically buy up local seed companies and their catalogues and take locally adapted and successful seed varieties off the market. So the use of GM crops is associated with an inexorable rise in corporate feudalism -- with millions of independent farmers being forced into economic dependence and ultimately forced off the land.
“We support Prince Charles's call for farming solutions that put people, not corporations, at their centre – and we support his contention that ultimately all that matters is food security. A world in which GM crops are everywhere will be a world of food INSECURITY -- with the most appalling social and political consequences.” (2)
GM Free Cymru predicts that the GM industry and its apologists will now attack the Prince with their accustomed ferocity, on the grounds that he knows nothing about GM science, and should leave this debate to expert scientists. "The Prince is better informed than these people think." says Dr John. "He knows full well that the assurances about the safety and the supposed benefits of GM are based upon a tissue of lies, and upon fraudulent science. If we are to have Monsanto scientists advising us as to what is good for us and the planet, God help us all!"
ENDS
Contact: Dr Brian John
Tel 01239-820470
NOTES
(1) The Prince's comments come hard on the heels of the UN International Assessment of Agriculture (IAASTD), carried out by 400 scientists and endorsed by 60 countries (including, reluctantly, the UK.) The report found no conclusive evidence that GM crops increase crop yields over time. It argued that even if crop yields are in the future pushed up by GM, this might still carry an unacceptable environmental and social cost, with degraded soils, accelerating climate change and a betrayal of the world’s poor. The biotechnology industry pulled out of IAASTD in a fit of pique, when it became clear that the report would not endorse GM crops. The approved report stated that “business as usual" was no longer an option and that science and technology must learn to work with traditional knowledge and indigenous communities in finding localised farming solutions.
(2) See also:
http://www.gmfreeze.org/page.asp?id=345&iType=
http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/press_releases/ world_leaders_warned_off_p_02062008.html
http://www.agassessment.org/
http://www.gmfreecymru.org/open_letters/Open_letter16Apr2008.html
(3) On fraudulent GM science:
info@responsibletechnology.org
http://thesourcewithin.blogspot.com/
http://www.gmfreecymru.org/news/Press_Notice10Mar2008.html
http://www.gmfreecymru.org/documents.htm
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20080618/news_lz1e18gurian.html