GM Free Cymru is a community pressure group based around Mathry, Pembrokeshire, which campaigns to keep Wales free of genetically-modified crops

Grŵp pwyso cymunedol wedi'i leoli yng ngyffiniau Mathri, Sir Benfro, yw Cymru ddi-GM ac mae'n ymgyrchu i gadw Cymru'n rhydd o gnydau wedi'u haddasu'n enetig

Latest Information

Environmental factors cause disruptions and distortions in GM plants

Comment: This is a very important paper. We knew already that when GM varieties are bred, the best non-GM lines are used, and that the "apparent" yield increases that are flagged up by the GM corporations have little to do with the GM insert and much to do with the strength of the parent lines. We also know that yields often drop after the first few years, and that weed resistance to glyphosate (for example) rapidly develops. So does insect resistance to BT crops.

Commission proposals for national GM bans are deeply flawed

We have been examining the draft documents which you are bringing forward this month for consideration by member states and the Parliament, for the reform of the GM assessment / approvals process. We wish to protest in the strongest possible terms about five EC& documents that have come from DG SANCO:

More evidence that "substantial equivalence" is a scam -- two new papers

Another 2 papers showing that the concept of substantial equivalence is a scam -- this time with respect to GM rice and the "next generation" of GM potatoes. The potato study showed "several unintended metabolic modifications in the engineered tubers, providing evidence for potential compositional inequivalence between transgenic lines and WT controls." The rice study led to this statement by the Chinese authors: " The unintended compositional alterations as well as unintended change of physical characteristic in transgenic rice compared with nontransgenic rice might be related to the genetic transformation....." Surprise, surprise.

Commission's cunning plan for fast-track GM approvals is rumbled

It looks as if NGOs are not the only ones who are deeply suspicious about the EC's proposals for an overhaul of the GM approval system. The Commission's press machine has flagged up the proposed changes as beneficial for Europe in that member states will henceforth be able to decide for themselves whether or not to ban GM crops, with or without scientific justification.

"In decades hence, it would not surprise me to find historians looking back in horror at the cavalier and primitive genetic manipulations which we unleashed on an unsuspecting-and narrow minded-world. The permanent contamination of species with human-transfered genes is a plague to be avoided."
Dr Marc Lappe( 1943-2005)
Comments made when he was unable to attend
Globalisation & Food Production - Safety, Ethics and Health in 2000

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever did".
Margaret Mead 1901 - 1978