Campaign group GM Freeze has launched a campaign following the government’s approval of an open-air field trial of genetically modified wheat at Rothamsted Research in Hertfordshire. Under the ‘GM Wheat? No Thanks!’ banner, the pressure group hopes to encourage individuals, farmers and food businesses to pledge not to use or buy GM wheat.

The organisation said that the eventual aim of its campaign is to direct research and food policy in a more environmentally aware, equitable direction, looking towards more sustainable food production methods.

Although consent for the trial crop was given in September 2011, the open air trial at Rothamsted is approved for planting from 1st March. The wheat being trialled is engineered to resist aphids and draw aphid predators to the area.

The campaign has gained support from a number of farming, environmental and anti-poverty organisations including the Pesticide Action Network and War on Want.

The government claims GM technology represents one of the key means to ensure food security given the range of challenges facing humanity this century, however, opponents remain suspicious of the corporations who remain dominant in the industry, arguing that calls for open source GM to facilitate testing and move agriculture in a genuinely equitable, sustainable direction have gone unheeded. Influential food policy writer Michael Pollen has described the technology as “a band-aid on monocultures.”

Commenting after the launch of its campaign, GM Freeze Campaign Director Pete Riley said, “Defra approved this GM trial against public and scientific objections. It is risky, unnecessary and unwanted.

“The UK has successfully avoided the serious agronomic problems caused by GM in other parts of the world, like the rampant spread of super weeds in the US. We should be learning from that experience and protecting our food and farming, not chasing GM pipe dreams.

 “We want the trial stopped immediately and all public funding currently aimed at GM redirected to research into genuinely sustainable agriculture, including agroecology. One of the biggest mysteries of this GM wheat is who is expected to buy it. There is no market anywhere in the world for GM wheat, so why are we putting our countryside at risk?”

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