LETTER TO Mrs MARGARET BECKETT MP
Re: New Seed Directive Proposed by EU Commission

Web version of a letter posted on 12th December 2003 by Eva Novotny, SGR

11 December, 2003

Margaret Beckett MP
Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
House of Commons
London SW1A 0AA

Dear Mrs Beckett,

We are a group of some 600 British scientists who believe that science and technology should be used exclusively in a manner that preserves the environment and promotes social justice. We are consequently concerned that a new EU Directive proposes new legislation that would undermine the integrity of the environment and possibly the health of human beings and animals.

It is proposed that the EU Commission enact legislation to permit levels of contamination in seed stock by genetically modified (GM) varieties as high as 0.3% in oilseed rape, 0.5% in maize, sugar beet, tomato and potato and 0.7% in soya, together with similar levels in other crops as more GM crops are developed. Such high levels of GM contamination are unacceptable. The seed is only the beginning of a long chain of possible avenues for contamination of the final product on the market. This chain includes volunteer plants from a previous year’s sowing of a GM crop; dispersal of pollen from GM plants (which would spread the contamination in the next generation and would also affect the current generation if the final product is itself a seed); transport by farm machinery, shoes, insects and wild animals, etc.; mixing with other batches of seeds and contamination by processing machinery. The high levels set already at the first link of the chain will greatly increase the likelihood that the final product will exceed the contamination level set by legislation for labelling of GM food and feed.

The permitted level for seed contamination must be set as low as possible, that is, to the smallest level that is detectable with the technology existing at any time. This level is at present 0.1%..

The recent GM debate has highlighted the fact that nearly 90% of the British people do not want to eat GM foods. The Government long ago promised British consumers the right to obtain GM-free food. If the proposed standards for 0.3% to 0.7% contamination of seeds are allowed, that promise will be broken.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Eva Novotny

Co-ordinator for GM Issues