Legal news

GM Freeze takes Defra to Tribunal over contamination secrecy

Many thanks to everyone who helped us beat our fighting fund target so we could take this important action.

GM oilseed rape contamination in Somerset


Update: September 2011

Read Pete Riley's post script to the 2008 contamination, incluidng information on the company behind the unauthorised OSR seed.

Update: 10 March 2011

The Tribunal upheld Defra's decision to keep the location of the GM contamination secret.

Click here for the findings in full (pdf 80 kb).

Click here our comments on this.

As we've made clear, we'll keep watching the Government to see how they handle GM contamination, and we'll keep fighting for full public disclosure.

Update: 9 December

Many thanks to all those who contributed to our fighting fund. We successfully raised more than our target of £2,000. We will attend the Tribunal hearing in January.

Background

For over a year GM Freeze was engaged in a Freedom of Information (FOI) case to force the Government to reveal the location of fields contaminated with illegal GM oilseed rape. They refused, and we came to the end of the formal appeal process provided for by FOI rules. We called for help from our supporters to pursue the case legally and get the truth out. Our fighting fund was a great success, showing the stength of public opinion on these matters.  

In December 2008 the Government announced that a field of oilseed rape in Somerset was contaminated with unauthorised GM seeds at a rate of around 5 seeds in every 10,000. Despite this relatively low level the contamination had been transferred to a neighbouring oilseed rape crop where one seed in 10,000 was contaminated.

Not surprisingly the source of the contamination was our old friends Monsanto, who had shipped in US seeds of a new non-GM variety that were contaminated with a Roundup tolerant strain with no commercial authorisation in the EU. Contamination appears to have taken place at a Monsanto seed production farm in Idaho. Without authorisation, planting the seed was technically illegal, but in this case the farmer contracted to grow the crop did not know about the contamination before planting.

GM Freeze thought it was important that the precise location of the contaminated field should be known so that neighbouring farmers and beekeepers could be alerted and be on the look-out for contamination in order to decrease the chances of it spreading further.

  • Step one: We asked Defra for the six figure map reference of the contaminated field. They refused saying that map references were personal information and it was not in the public interest to release it.
  • Step two: We appealed to Defra to review their own decision and they came back, months later, and said that the first ruling was correct.
  • Step three: We appealed to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). Recently we received the ICO decision, which backed Defra's refusal to reveal the map reference. They said that the farmer did not know about the contamination and did not wish the information to be released because it may damage his reputation and reduce the value of his land. They also said the information was personal and it was not in the public interest to reveal the field's location.
Fighting for the Public's Right to Know

We still believe it is in the public interest for the map references to be releases, but the government seems determined to keep the GM industry's secret. People, including farmers, gardeners and allotment holders, need to aware of GM contamination and do everything they can to contain it - the alternative is for contamination to spread in volunteer plants and wild relatives with uncertain, but potentially significant, environmental and economic consequences. 

Next time there is a case of seed contamination, several hundred farmers could be involved and thousands of acres of good land could be contaminated. Oilseed rape seed persists in the soil for a decade or more, and GM contamination can spread via pollen or seeds. Honeybees home in on oilseed rape flowers in the spring, so the purity of honey is threatened.

The threat of other seed contamination is not hypothetical. GM Freeze is also still pursuing last year's global contamination of flax supplies with an illegal GM variety and trying to find out what the government has done to ensure seed supplies were not affected. They have not told us of any action they have taken to protect UK farmers.

We were advised to take legal advice and use a barrister to present our case at an appeal tribunal under the Environmental Information Regulations. We knew might lose, but we felt it is important to test the system and demonstrate that it is currently working in favour of the polluter and secrecy. We felt we must try to overturn this dangerous precedent.

The GM polluter should be made to pay. At a time when both EU and UK authorities are pushing for more GM to be grown, we need to ensure those who do not want GM are protected from contamination. This will only be possible if we know where the pollution is in the first place and we challenge the secrecy the biotech companies crave.

Please get in touch if you need further information.