Meacher demands honest GM food debate
Former environment minister Michael Meacher’s new backbench freedom may cause considerable problems for the Government, especially on issues pertaining to genetically modified food.
Though many thought he resigned from the Government, Mr. Meacher said he was sacked after six years as Minister for the Environment.
His attitude on GM issues was perceived to be increasingly at odds with the PM.
The Department for Rural Affairs (Defra) has been forced to reject allegations made by Mr. Meacher that the Government buried a report criticising GM food safety.
In an interview in the Independent on Sunday, Mr. Meacher said scientific research on GM, noting possible deleterious effects on humans, had been ‘widely rubbished in government circles.’
Moreover, he said spin had disguised some of the more alarming findings from scientific research: ‘The only human GM trial, commissioned ironically by the Food Standards Agency, found that genetically modified DNA did in fact transfer to bacteria in the human gut. Previously many scientists had denied that this was possible.
‘But instead of this finding being regarded as a serious discovery which should be checked and re-checked, the spin was that this was nothing new and did not involve any health risk.’
Speaking on ITV’s ‘The Sunday Programme’, Mr. Meacher noted the jarring dissonance on GM at the heart of the Government: ‘The Prime Minister has said and I indicated that I agreed with this, that the decision must be made on scientific grounds.
‘What I was trying to say is, yes I agree that we should do it on the basis of science, on the basis of, as he would say prejudice, as I would say other people’s judgment, but has he understood what the science is actually saying?’
He called for systematic trials on the long-term impact of eating GM crops on human beings.
‘There have been no human feeding trials, either in the United States or in the UK, of the long-term health and bio-chemical impacts on human beings. If it was drugs, you’d spend five to ten years doing it; in the case of GM crops it appears to be taken for granted.’
‘We’re told that because GM food is compositionally very similar – substantially equivalent is the phrase used – to non-GM food, there’s no need for these trials: I think that’s totally wrong. I want to see more science, Prime Minister, not less,’ he charged.
In the light of these claims, Patrick Holden, the director of the Soil Association, a campaign group promoting organic food and farming, said: ‘Mr Meacher’s comments are very worrying because they suggest the government has already made up its mind on GM.’
Mr. Meacher had been on the front bench for 27 of the past 29 years since he was appointed to a junior ministerial post in 1974
The Government is to deliberate further on the pitfalls and advantages of GM foods later in the year.
