Farmers Weekly

Anger As Sites for GM Trials Are Revealed

The details appeared on Department of Environment Transport and the Regions' internet site this week and included farm addresses and grid references of the fields where trials will be conducted.

Two of the sites are in Lincolnshire - Home Farm, Spital in the Street and The Old Rectory, Croxby, with another at Home Farm, Screveton, Notts.

The remaining site is at Wood Farm, Piccots End, Herts, the farm part-owned by Bob Fiddaman, NFU's representative on the pro GM crops body SCIMAC, Supply Chain Initiative for Modified Agricultural Crops.

Mr Fiddaman said he had chosen to offer his farm as a site a political gesture. "In the wake the blatant trashing of crop trials in Norfolk I felt strongly that I had take a more active stand and help establish whether GM crops have any effect on the environment."

But he was disappointed the government had revealed the exact locations instead of opting to follow other member states who reveal only the district in which a trial sited.

"I don't know why they [the government] thought it was necessary. To me it is unnecessarily provocative to publish the map reference for a site. The field where the trial will take place is close to a minor road, away from the farm house and virtually impossible to secure.

"The government wants the trials to go ahead, but by publicising where my field is I am now unable to protect it from attack,- so we could lose the results once again. I'm also concerned about intimidation of my family," Mr Fiddaman said.

Roger Turner, head of the British Plant Breeders Association and SCIMAC chairman, agreed that explicit details should not have been revealed. "I'm all in favour of openness and transparency, but the difficulty is that environmentalists are determined not to let the trials go forward," he said.

Environmental campaign group Greenpeace confirmed Mr Turner's fears by vowing to take "non-violent, direct action" against the new test sites.