Caithness.org News Bulletins

Councillor Green has written to SNH chairman John Markland expressing his increasing unease about the GM issue as the result of recent international research, which confirms misgivings the Council and the wider community have about two GM oilseed rape crop farmscale trials on the Black Isle.

An extensive study, commissioned by English Nature of GM herbicide tolerant oilseed rape crops in Canada, revealed that genes from separate GM varieties can accumulate in weeds leading to the emergence of plants resistant to several widely used herbicides. This resulted in farmers using older and more environmentally-damaging herbicides to control weeds.

He said he would be interested to hear how SNH will respond to the findings of the English Nature commissioned research and how these findings have influenced SNHs position in respect to the GM Field Scale Evaluation programme and future
commercial growing of GM crops.  He said: "Taking account of our recent experiences and these new revelations regarding GM trials, I would suggest that the Highland public are expecting a cautious approach being adopted until the fullest possible information is in the public domain.

He believed the time was long overdue for a frank debate about the type of agriculture wanted both in the Highlands and Scotland.  In September, last year, The Highland Council agreed a five-pronged policy position concerning Genetically Modified Crops and their trials which calls on the Scottish Executive to: -
 *Support the recommendations of the Agriculture Environment and Biotechnology Commission that   
   further data must be gathered and a full public debate take place before commercial GM crop   
   growing can be considered;
 *Place a moratorium on farm scale evaluations until the flaws in the trials, identified by the AEBC, have 
   been corrected;
 *Halt and revoke the present trial at Munlochy until full environmental and safety information on the 
   use of glufosinate ammonium herbicide has been placed in the public domain
 *Initiate a wider discussion of ethical and socio-economic concerns and consider strategic and 
   economic factors before taking future decisions; and
 *Initiate a wider debate about what kind of agriculture people in the United Kingdom, especially in the
   Highlands, want and how it can be achieved.

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