Genetic Engineering Network 1A Waterlow Road, London, N19 5NJ
Wednesday 24 July 2002

Immediate release

Press release

Direct activists will deliver "barrow-loads of GM crops that have been pulled up" to Government in London TODAY, Wednesday 24 July 2002

At 8.30 a.m. this morning at a press conference in Oxford, direct activists said that they will be delivering wheel barrows full of GM crops from trial sites around Britain to the Government's Department for Environment, Food and Rural (DEFRA) in Smiths Square, London at 2 p.m.[1] The activists are responding to the Governments call for a public consultation into the commercial growing of GM crops in Britain following GM crop trials[2].

About fifty people attended the press conference at Manzil Gardens on the Cowley Road in East Oxford. Activists from Scotland, Shropshire, Dorset, Oxfordshire and North Yorkshire were present. Bags of GM crops were paraded in front of the press with labels showing the counties from which they came. Banners saying "No to GM crop commercialisation", "We want to be GM free" are to taken to London. Petitions, placards, flags and other messages are also expected to be delivered to DEFRA.

Speakers at the press conference included Donny McLeod from Munlochy, Fife in Scotland[3], Mathew Herbert from Oxfordshire and Gerald Miles from Pembrokeshire in Wales,

Matthew Herbert an Oxford resident and activist said,
'For five years nonviolent direct activists have been holding back the tide of GM crops, and defending the environment and our democracy against corporate greed. Now the Government needs to make a choice. Are they going to bow to the corporate agenda and commercialise GM crops? Or are they going to listen to the people and abandon GM in favour of truly sustainable alternatives?'
ENDS
CONTACT: Donny MacLeod 07747 896 878, Kathryn Tulip 07796 430 141

Editors Notes
[1] Over a hundred people from all over Briton will deliver wheelbarrows full of GM crops, petitions, postcards and other messages that there should be no more planting of GM crops in Britain.
[2] The Government is to start a public consultation on whether GM crops should be grown commercially in Britain in the autumn. Currently GM crops are only grown in farm scale trials designed to assess the impact of GM crops on wildlife. The trials end summer 2003.
[3] Donny McLeod was sentenced to 21 days in prison in relation to damage to a GM crop trial.