An organic farmer and landowner has been charged with criminal damage following an incident at Rothamsted Research Centre in Hertfordshire on Sunday. Hector Christie, an old Etonian and brother of the Glyndebourne opera organiser who lives in Devon, was arrested after spreading wheat seed and cutting down plants at the site of an acutely controversial open-air trial of GM wheat, engineered to repel aphids.

Events took a turn for the farcical in the wake of Sunday’s break-in as NFU president Peter Kendall likened Mr Christie to Nazi party ‘book burners’ who ceremonially burnt books which did not correspond with Nazi ideology in the 1930s. Defra secretary Caroline Spelman, who co-owns biotechnology lobbying firm Spelman, Cormack & Associates, also reviled the break-in yesterday.

Although there has been widespread condemnation of the break in by politicians and industry leaders, campaign group Take the Flour Back, which has publicly opposed the GM wheat trial said it will go ahead with a protest against at Rothamsted on Sunday 27th May.

A spokesperson for the group, which has come under some flak since Sunday’s break in, said, “We have no information about this incident, but are relieved if the quantity of GM pollen released from the trial has been reduced.”

The group has expressed concerns that the trial crop, which Rothamsted researchers claim could reduce pesticide use if it is found to be successful, could outcross and contaminate other wheat plants. Elanor Baylis, a spokesperson for the campaigners said “The British people are clear that they're not swallowing this technology, yet the Coalition government has allowed a release of genetically modified materials which threaten the livelihoods of Britain's flourishing wheat farmers. The only certainty about this trial is that there's an absolute market rejection of the product it's testing.”

Researchers at Rothamsted have assured that the GM wheat being trialled will remain in the public domain, though the technology remains widely distrusted in Europe, not least because of its association with large agribusinesses, infamous for their rigorous protection of ‘intellectual property’ rights. The British public has been shown to be sceptical of GM technology and authors of a Government report into sustainable food released last week concluded that, “Until there is clear public acceptance of GM and it is proven to be beneficial, the Government should not license its commercial use in the UK nor promote its use overseas.”

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