GM Crop Debate

Following on from the GM crops meeting and a very excellent article in
last weeks Driffield Times I have three areas of concern.

Firstly, surely if there are dangers from these plants then this is an issue far bigger than just Driffield and Nafferton and to pressure the individual councils of these areas to “all within their power to keep GM crops out of the Driffield and Nafferton areas” is of doubtful value.

I do not know what the extent of all the powers of Driffield and Nafferton Parish Councils are. The important question to ask here is “do the residents of Driffield and Nafferton, in isolation, want their parish and town precept taxes spent on the pursuit of this cause?”

Secondly, I have concerns for the competitive ability of our East Riding and UK farms if this technology is not available to them. We live in times when the Government is quite clearly pushing UK Farming into a trading environment where it must compete, without commodity support, in a world market place at global prices. If we deny our agriculture the science to compete, all we shall do is deny farmers one more crop which they are presently able to grow.

Thirdly, if Oilseed Rape becomes a crop we are unable to compete with then farmers will be unable to grow it. This will have negative environmental implications. OSR is a good break crop it is quite different from the traditional cereal crops which are grown in rotation with it. OSR is a deeprooted crop which sends a strong central root deep into the ground, it is a good soil and land conditioner. Taking it from the rotation will push East Riding farms towards a cereal monoculture with the environmental problems which come from the increased intensification that this would bring.

In conclusion:

If GM is bad then I agree, we must be very careful with the move towards its introduction but whatever happens the approach must be at least UK wide and preferably EU wide. It would be completely futile for Nafferton and Driffield to do something in isolation. So the correct thing for anyone with concerns to do is to make these concerns clear to the Government at The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs DEFRA. You can do this at http://www.defra.gov.uk