Zero Tolerance to GM - letter to Somerset County Gazette

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Sat 21st Oct 2006

Somerset County Council's Executive has recently very robustly and unanimously restated its opposition to GM crops. We look forward to all the West Country local authorities demanding a GM Free West Country via the Regional Assembly. We look forward to a GM free UK. Below is a short extract from our reply to the DEFRA consultation.

"Somerset County Council and local interested parties have given serious consideration to the detailed questions posed in the consultation document. The unanimous conclusion reached was that to respond in detail to questions which were felt to be badly framed, poorly presented, biased and based on the assumption that GM crops will be grown in the UK, would be inappropriate. The Council's stance on the development of GM crops in the UK is one of zero tolerance on co-existence, in that there are no circumstances under which GM, non-GM and organic crops can be grown together. The following general points however, were felt to be important in relation to the consultation document:

· The idea that any level of GM contamination of conventional crops, organic crops and the food chain is unacceptable.

· The development of GM crops presents a major threat to organic farming which is an important and growing industry in Somerset and one which DEFRA itself promotes.

· Honey production, another important Somerset industry, is threatened by GM crops as there is no way that any coexistence measures will prevent the contamination of honey with GM pollen.

· The rights of gardeners and allotment holders to grow their own GM free produce have been completely ignored in the consultation and dismissed as unimportant.

Somerset County Council is also very disappointed that in launching this consultation on co-existence, the government has chosen to ignore the results of its own national debate.

Jim Mochnacz

County Councillor for Street