Tuesday 28th October 2008, 7.00pm
LETS Members may be interested in this talk by Percy Schmeiser, an award winning Canadian farmer who will be speaking in Dorchester on October 28th at Kingston Maurward Agricultural College about GM contamination and challenging Monsanto.
Percy will be having a number of one to one meetings and small group discussions during his 10 day UK Tour including meetings with representatives of the main political parties and farming organisations. Percy will be having lunch at The Soil Association in Bristol on 28th before arriving at Kingston Maurward for the evening event.
In 2008 Percy Schmeiser successfully sued Monsanto in the small claims court after GM oilseed rape volunteers sprung up on this land. Schmeiser had never bought GM seeds from the company. The farm was first contaminated with Monsanto’s GM oilseed rape in 1998. Mr Schmeiser was accused of infringing the company’s patents rights by saving seed from crops grown despite the fact that he played no part in the RoundUp ready genes getting onto his land and germinating. The Schmeisers’ story will resonate with farmers who save their own seed in the UK and with those who grow crops for food companies who are looking for ingredients free of GM presence. Coexistence, economic liability and how patents laws will be applied are major GM policy areas which remain unresolved in the UK and to which the Schmeisers’ experience is highly relevant. The ease with which GM oilseed rape spread onto the Schmeisers’ farm is a warning to all farmers if GM oilseed rape is ever approved in the UK.
The tour takes place against a background of increasingly vocal support for GM crops from Labour ministers and of pressure to make the locations of GM test sites secret in the UK.
Jane O’Meara of GM-Free Dorset, one of the tour organisers, said:
“We are delighted that Percy and Louise Schmeiser have agreed to visit the UK. This is a real chance for farmers and politicians to hear firsthand about the pitfalls of GM crops. The UK has yet to decide how to safeguard non-GM farmers from GM contamination and who will compensate them if they lose income as a result. Without tough rules to prevent GM contamination and ensure GM companies are liable for damage caused by their crops, the experience of the Schmeisers could well become a reality in the UK.
During their UK tour Percy and Louise Schmeiser will meet farmers and politicians around England and Wales. The couple, who were born in 1931, received the Right to Livelihood Award in 2007 for their courage in defending biodiversity and farmers’ rights, and challenging the environmental and moral perversity of current interpretations of patent laws”.
The meeting will be Chaired by Fanny Charles editor of Stour and Avon, Fosse Way and Blackmore Vale magazines. The opening speech will be by Michael Hart of Family Farms Association, and who farms in Cornwall. The scientist to accompany Percy will be Dr. Ricarda Steinbrecher of EcoNexus.
Percy and his wife have been farming for over 50 years. He was awarded the Right to Livelihood Award in 2007. The award presented in the Swedish Parliament, was founded in 1980, to “honour and support those offering practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges facing us today”. He was mayor of his hometown Bruno, from 1966-1983 and served as a town councillor from 2003-2006, and was a member of the Saskatchewen Legislative Assembly 1967-71.
EcoNexus is a not-for-profit public interest research organisation. It investigates and analyses developments in science and technology. It offers a rigorous scientific critique of genetic engineering (GE) and genetically modified organisms, and more recently of agrofuels (biofuels), synthetic biology and other new technological applications. It investigates and reports on the impacts of these technologies on the environment, biodiversity, human and animal health, food security, agriculture, human rights and society. EcoNexus also examines the influence of corporations on development issues and scientific, social, economic and political processes. It is based in the UK and collaborates with a diversity of networks nationally and internationally.
Ricarda Steinbrecher has a masters degree (first class honours) in biology with a focus on developmental biology and microbiology, from the University of Kiel, Germany (1985) and a PhD in molecular genetics from the University of London. She has specialised in gene regulation since 1982 and has worked as a research scientist in the field of mutational analysis, gene identification and gene therapy in university and hospital settings. Since 1995 she has focused on genetic engineering in food and farming, its risks and potential consequences on health, food security and the environment. She has worked as GM co-ordinator at the Women’s Environmental Network, as Science Director at the Genetics Forum and is a founding member and Co-Director of EcoNexus. She has been closely involved with the international negotiations and implementation of the Cartagena Biosafety Protocol since 1995. She has been advisor and consultant to many national and international organisations and is co-founder of the Genetic Engineering Alliance and its GM Freeze Campaign in the UK. Ricarda Steinbrecher is co-author of the book ‘Hungry Corporations’ transnational biotech companies colonise the food chain, published in 2003, and is author of many scientific papers, briefings, commentaries and reports.
Anyone interested in the GM issue is welcome. There is no charge and no booking, please simply turn up! The contact for the South West is Jane O’Meara (Spokesperson for The GM-Free Dorset Campaign), so if you need more information you can call her on 01258 861023. More information is also available at http://www.gmfreecymru.org.
