22 April 2002
CONTROVERSIAL GM CROP TRIAL DESTROYED
1. CONTROVERSIAL GM CROP TRIAL DESTROYED
2. Frustration grows as GM crop is damaged yet again
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1. CONTROVERSIAL GM CROP TRIAL DESTROYED
Gordon Darroch
PA News, April 21, 2002
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_572145.html
A field of genetically modified crops in the Highlands has been vandalised.
Northern Constabulary said today that a field of genetically modified (GM) crops at Roskill Farm, Munlochy, Easter Ross, which has sparked a storm of controversy in the Highlands has been vandalised, with about five acres of GM oilseed rape destroyed overnight.
Police said they were investigating the matter and appealed for any witnesses to come forward.
The incident comes just days after a Scottish Parliamentary committee called for the crop trial, which had just started to flower, to be ploughed up.
A total of 4,000 protesters based on the Black Isle handed a petition to the Transport and Environment Committee expressing their opposition to the crop trial.
A meeting of the committee on Wednesday voted five to four in favour of a motion by Green MSP Robin Harper calling for an end to the trial.
The vote was a blow for rural development minister Ross Finnie, who told the committee there was no new evidence of any safety hazards that could affect GM crop trials in Scotland.
Anthony Jackson, of the Munlochy Vigil which has campaigned against the oilseed rape trial, said the group had no knowledge of the incident.
He said: "We have no plans for direct action. We are heavily involved in the political process and that is the way we will continue to operate."
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2. Frustration grows as GM crop is damaged yet again
by KAY JARDINE and LORNA MARTIN
THE GLASGOW HERALD, April 22nd
http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/archive/22-4-19102-0-13-48.html
A controversial trial crop of genetically-modified oil seed rape in the Highlands has been vandalised again, days after a Scottish parliamentary committee called for it to be ploughed up.
Police said about five acres of the plant were destroyed overnight at Tulloch farm near Munlochy in Easter Ross.
Protesters said the act reflected the high level of public frustration in the area over the issue and claimed the poor handling of the issue by Ross Finnie, the environment minister, was largely to blame.
The damage follows a demand from MSPs on the transport and environment committee for the crop trial, which had just started to flower, to be destroyed.
Robin Harper, the Green MSP, won vital cross-party support in a five-to-four vote, with MSPs warning that it could cross-pollinate with non-GM crops and enter the food chain.
They asked for the trial to end, despite written assurances from Mr Finnie that there was no new evidence of a hazard to health from Munlochy or the other trials in Grampian and Fife.
Mr Harper said he had sympathy with people's fears and frustrations, but felt dismayed about the action taken.
"I was hoping to take things forward politically and we have been assembling a fairly strong case for Ross Finnie to order the destruction of the crop because of considerable fears over the environmental consequences.
"I'm very dismayed that people have trampled the crop but have sympathy with their fears."
A total of 4000 protesters in the Black Isle had earlier handed a petition to the committee expressing their opposition to the crop trial.
Kenny Taylor, chairman of Highlands and Islands GM Concern, said: "This reflects the sheer extent of public frustration over the process that has led us into this mess whereby we have got this unwanted pollution in Scotland.
"For something like this to happen is not entirely unexpected. I would actually lay some of the responsibility for that at the door of people like Ross Finnie, who has handled this matter in such an unsatisfactory way over the last 18 months."
Anthony Jackson, of the Munlochy Vigil, which has also campaigned against the oil seed rape trial, said the group had no knowledge of the incident.
He said: "We have no plans for direct action. We are heavily involved in the political process and that is the way we will continue to operate."
Mr Jackson added: "An action like that needn't happen because Mr Finnie has the power to pull any trial in Scotland at any time. He should listen to his own party, the parliament, and the public and use the powers to stop the trial at Munlochy and all the trials in Scotland."
Fiona McLeod, the SNP's environment spokeswoman, said: "What Ross Finnie now has to do is listen very carefully to what the evidence is saying and act upon it and not leave the public to take it into their own hands."
It is not the first time the trial crop by Jamie Grant, of Roskill farm, and Aventis, a biotech company, has been damaged.
Protesters trampled a large X in it on the day of the general election last year. Donnie MacLeod, an organic farmer, served 11 days in jail for refusing to name those involved.