Police halt anti-GM wheat protest

Anti-GM protesters who had planned to "decontaminate" a field of modified wheat in Hertfordshire have been stopped from entering by a police line.

The Take the Flour Back group say crops could contaminate the surrounding area. The protesters had planned to rip up the crops.

More than 400 growers, bakers and families from across England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, France and Belgium marched against the return of open air GM field.

Kate Bell from Take the Flour Back stated that “In the past, kids, grannies, and everyone in between has decontaminated GM trial sites together. Here at the beginning of a new resistance to this obsolete technology, we see GM hidden behind a fortress. We wanted to do the responsible thing and remove the threat of GM contamination, sadly it wasn’t possible to do that effectively today. However, we stand arm in arm with farmers and growers from around the world, who are prepared to risk their freedom to stop the imposition of GM crops.”

An order banning protesters from entering the site was issued on Friday.
Police say that two men, who were arrested for trespassing in the banned area, are being questioned at a Hertfordshire police station.

The GM wheat trial designed to repel aphids, contains genes for antibiotic-resistance and an artificial gene ‘most similar to a cow’.

Wheat is wind-pollinated. In Canada similar experiments have leaked into the food-chain costing farmers millions in lost exports. There is no market for GM wheat anywhere in the world.

This experiment is tax-payer funded, but Rothamsted hope to sell any patent it generates to an agro-chemical company. La Via Campesina, the world’s largest organisation of peasant farmers, believe GM is increasing world hunger. They have called for support resisting GM crops, and the control over agriculture that biotech gives to corporations.