A danger that can be avoided?

Many mainstream European environment groups launched campaigns against genetically modified (GM) crops in the 1990s, when the approval of biotech soy for growth in the EU was being discussed by politicians.

"For us GMs were a danger that could be avoided," explains Monica Holbach of Greenpeace, the conservation group, which launched its own campaign in 1996.

"It is not like climate change, which is simply there…this was an environmental risk not yet taken in Europe."

Holbach says there are two main reasons for continued opposition to genetically modified crops in Europe: "First of all this is something we don’t need… the risks to biodiversity and health have still not been properly assessed."

Second, according to Holbach, claims that GM technologies could help farmers in developing countries are "pure propaganda".

"Argentina is growing GM crops but look who’s growing them: it’s not the small farmers, struggling to survive. Then the end product is not consumed at home, it is exported," she says.

Six years ago 28 Greenpeace UK volunteers were taken to court for pulling up GM crops in Norfolk. The activists were acquitted. Lindsay Keenan of Greenpeace International says the group believed the destruction of GM field trials to be "scientifically and socially justified". "We understand and completely sympathise when individuals or groups take such action," he says.

A European Commission survey this year showed public trust in environ-mental groups was falling when it came to genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Holbach says this reflects successful pressure to keep GM products off the EU market.

"Europe has been kept safe from GMOs," she explains, "so the issue is not so much in people’s minds."

"But the reality is that people are still very concerned," she adds.

Many mainstream European environment groups launched campaigns against genetically modified (GM) crops in the 1990s, when the approval of biotech soy for growth in the EU was being discussed by politicians.

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