Today the green Party of Norfolk is calling upon Michael Meacher MP and Nick Brown to offer some hope to farmers who are hit hardest by the F&M disease.
Those who lost their livestock and have not farmed with the use of chemicals for years, should be considered as a priority to convert to organic, if they so wish.
Demand for organic food in this country is rising fast and we must be able to grow most of it ourselves.
At present less than 1% is grown here and many foods are imported, thousands of miles, accruing environmental damage on the way to our plates. The Green Party wants to reverse that trend, by 2010 we would produce 30% of organic ourselves, loosing some 50 % of our pesticide needs by 2005 in the process. It is vital that the genuine reasons that stopped the Ryton trials are applied to all other organic farms in an equally near vicinity to other GM trials ( 36 ) in England and Wales.
"If contamination is at issue and stopped trials at HDRA Ryton, it is a fact at all the other trials near organic farms and liability must be guaranteed for all harm caused.," says Ingo Wagenknecht, Green Party candidate for the Norfolk County council elections and a 'healthy and safe food' campaigner, he added:
" The Green Party is asking the Government to stop all trials in this country now, industry and this Government can not bully the competition out of existence by deliberately deleting/contaminating the genetic blueprint of organic plants, consumer don't want it to happen and scientists are adamant that the use of bacteria and viruses in recombinant DNA research is dangerous to us, the risk's of creating new toxins and allergies are great. It is unruly of a Governments entourage, to push organic farmers aside, they have a legitimate worry of loosing their livelihood and a right to say so."
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