Newsletter Summer 2003

GM Public Debate: Stop the Stitch Up!

Our dear deaf DEFRA finally pulled the stops out for a public debate, but beware a stitch-up. The debate itself takes place in June and the first half of July. It has not been well publicised, and DEFRA just hopes we will blink and find the moment gone. They can still claim they consulted us. They are aiming to avoid us - they even postponed the publication of the assessment of GM field trials until September. That is why we must get stuck in and deliver our views. This is not just a food issue. It is a matter of democracy v corporate power backed by government.

We can take part in the debate online and by organising local meetings, and by filling in the online and meeting feedback forms. The views expressed on these forms will go into a report on the debate, which the government claims it will take into account in its decision on whether to approve commercial growing of GM crops. The Central Office of Information, which is organising the debate and the report, told me they will only take contributions on these forms. So it is vital that we fill them in and say No to GM as loudly and emphatically as we can. The COI needs to receive the forms by 18 July.

If you can organise a meeting, however small, or get a GM agenda item included in an already planned meeting, phone the COI for the all-important form on 020 7261 8616.

According to my advice from central FoE, paper forms should not be photocopied as they are individually numbered. There are also meeting packs and leaflets on how to organise a meeting. The COI is keen to hear from people it has not already heard from, so it is best to ask as an individual or a member of another organisation than FoE.

The meeting information and feedback form can also be ordered online. There are two government web addresses for the GM debate: www.gmnation.org.uk and www.gmpublicdebate.org.uk.

Leaflets on the issues, and why GM crops should not be grown, are available from a coalition of Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, the Soil Association, GeneWatch, Five Year Freeze, the Women's Institute, UNISON, ActionAid, Christian Aid, Farmers Union of Wales and Islamic Foundation for Ecology. Leaflets are at www.gmleaflet.org or phone 020 7837 0642.

GM-Free B&NES

If you do organise a meeting, please also get people who haven't yet done so to sign our petition to B&NES Council (copies are at envolve) to get B&NES declared GM-Free. If there are organisations involved who support a GM-Free B&NES, please also get the Secretary or Chairman or other official person to sign our organisations' pledge to the Council. The business pledge form is enclosed with this newsletter. Please send to me at 14 Grosvenor Place, Bath BA1 6AX or leave them in Terry’s in-tray at envolve.

I have submitted Bath and Somer Valley FoE's contribution to a Council report on GM-Free B&NES. When the councillors finally sort themselves out and set a date for reading the report, I want to use our petitions to get media coverage for GM-Free B&NES so the councillors know it has plenty of public backing.

The June Green Light Lecture is on local food, and I have heard it will have a large dollop on GM on the agenda too. So go along to BRLSI in Queen Square on Monday 23 June at 7pm for 7.30pm and have your say.

We need as many councillors as possible to support the resolution. So please contact your councillors and ask them to vote for it.

We need to underline that GM is an important issue for local businesses and organisations. We have over 350 signatures from members of the public - the more the merrier. We also need to get organisations on board. These could be schools, companies, organic growers, community groups.

The resolution calls on the Council to request the European Commission and the Secretary of State, DEFRA, to provide legal protection for the B&NES area from specific GM crops in line with Article 19 of Directive 2001/18/EC; to ensure that no GM crops are grown on land over which the Council has control; and that when catering and other Council contracts that could involve GM food or GM products come up for renewal, it insists on GM-free provisions in the new contracts. We also asked the Council to urge its present caterers and contractors to respect the wishes of the majority of consumers not to eat GM foods. A MORI poll published in April 2003 found 56% of consumers against GM foods, and only 14% in favour. A Consumers' Association survey in May 2002 reported that 58% of those interviewed found the commercial growing of GM crops unacceptable, while 32% found them acceptable.

Some of our main reasons for asking the Council to declare B&NES GM-Free are:-

• The science of GM crops (as well as animals, fish) and food is insufficiently advanced to establish the technology's safety for human health and the environment.
• Harmful effects of food in humans often take many years to emerge and the effects of GM foods in North America, where they have been eaten for around 7 years, are not being studied.
• The damage to the environment from the pollen of GM crops is irreversible, as they cross-pollinate with non-GM crops and wild relatives. The GM seed companies accused non-GM farmers in North America, who crops were contaminated by cross-pollination, of stealing patented seed. The seed companies imposed huge fines on the farmers.
• Other forms of farming, especially organic which by law must be GM-free, cannot co-exist with GM, as the North American experience of commercial GM crops has shown. Widespread contamination there led to huge losses for organic and non-GM farmers. Thus consumers and farmers have no choice and no sure means of avoiding GM.
• Organic farms and food outlets in B&NES, traditional and conventional seed breeders, wildlife conservation areas and tourism, are just some of the businesses which would be at risk if GM crops are grown here commercially.
• The legal framework for GM crops and food is inadequate. Especially, there is no producer liability for harm done; the approval system is flawed; EU labelling law allows 1% (currently) and 0.9% (agreed but not yet enacted) GM contamination of foods labelled GM-free; and it is the responsibility of the non-GM producer to guard against contamination.
• This framework places the onus for protecting environment and human health from harmful GM effects not on the GM originator of the harmful technology, but on the rest of the community. That could involve the Council, businesses and non-GM farmers in costly legal action.
• Insurance companies will not insure against the risk of damage from genetically modified organisms.
• The research that would establish safety for human health and the environment is not being carried out because the human safety approval system for GM crops and GM foods accepts "substantial equivalence" with conventional crops and foods as the cut-off point for further safety research into GM. The GM field trials aimed to establish the "null hypothesis" for the environment, ie that the GM crops are no different in their effect on the immediate environment and farm management than non-GM. But GM claims to be and is an entirely new technology, based on the transfer of alien genes (eg fish genes to a tomato, pesticide to maize). As such it has no previous equivalent.
• Far from needing less herbicide and pesticide, as the GM seed companies claim, GM crops have produced superweeds and superbugs, which require herculean efforts of toxicity to make them shrivel. US farmers started mixing their own herbicide potions to find something the weeds could not resist. And guess what? Never missing a commercial trick, Monsanto took out a patent on herbicide mixtures made from certain types of substance but devised entirely and independently by farmers from commercially bought herbicides.

I wonder if there is something that I could patent which could make or break Monsanto's business? Problem is I don't have the US Patent Office on my side.

Susan

Billet dur for Bush's dip in the smoke

The regime across the Pond has decided that British and other EU consumers not wanting to eat GM is unfair to poverty-stricken corporates Monsanto, DuPont and Dow. Bush et al have decided that if we demand to choose what we eat, this is against the "free trade" rules of that opaque, aloof and totally undemocratic body, the World Trade Organisation.

Monsanto accounted for an estimated 91% of GM crops throughout the world in 2001. And this is still not enough for them. The EU currently has a de facto moratorium on GM crop approvals. Public opinion has everything to do with that. But there is an EU move to centralise crop approvals in the newly created European Food Safety Authority, which is bristling with biotech lobbyists and just one token consumer representative. We need to keep up the pressure so they don't give way to bully Bush.

The next step is to email the US Ambassador in London from the Friends of the Earth website with a cunningly concocted and most respectful letter in dip lingo conveying our dismay at the WTO move, and urging the US to support democracy. It is at www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/global_trade/press_for_change/email_us_embassy

Susan

Trade Justice Movement Mass Lobby Sat 28 June

World trade rules rob poor countries of £1.3 billion a day ? 14 times what they get in aid. This needs to change. And the time to change it is now.

Join the Trade Justice Rally at Bath Abbey at noon on Saturday 28th June, as 659 MPs are lobbied in 24 hours. Come along to register your protest at the way trade rules are unfairly weighted against the poor.

After a 2 minute silence at noon that will take place across the country we will move on to a fairtrade picnic, please bring along food, banners and placards.

If you would like to be involved in lobbying Don Foster MP earlier on the day or for more information, call Fiona, Oxfam, on 07974 910257 or email fairtradebath@yahoo.co.uk

For more information about the Trade Justice Movement and the lobbies going on around the UK on 28th June see www.tjm.org.uk.

Terry

Trade Teach-In Mon 16 June

In preparation for the rally a Trade Teach-in will be taking place on Monday 16th June at 7.30pm at Manvers Street Baptist Church.

Come along and discuss the pressing issues in international trade, the forthcoming WTO negotiations at Cancun, and the difference between the TJM’s position on trade and that of the government. There will also be some advice on effective lobbying.

Speakers include Susan Johnson from the University of Bath and Lilian Nsubuga a journalist on The East African..

Terry

B&NES Fairtrade Status

B&NES is progressing steadily towards Fairtrade status. A significant number of local businesses and organisations in B&NES are still needed to commit to using Fairtrade products. If you know of any clubs, organisations or businesses who support Fairtrade, please ask them to sign up. A form is attached to this newsletter. (more forms are available at envolve)

Terry

Flying on holiday this summer?

Air transport is the fastest growing source of CO2 pollution accounting for 3% of world emissions. And that’s on top of the extra road congestion and noise pollution that it creates. The Government has predicted a three-fold increase in air traffic, and their current plans mean the equivalent of a new Stansted will be built every year for a quarter of a century.

A recent re-run of the Government's own computer model has shown that, if the aviation industry were made to pay the costs of the pollution and damage it causes, no new runways would be needed anywhere in the UK. Friends of the Earth has also dismissed as a "sick joke" BAAs claim that its airport expansion demands were "responsible".

Airlines pay no tax on fuel and aren't subject to the same health and pollution regulations as many other forms of transport. The end result is that every UK tax payer is subsidising the air travel industry - whether or not they fly. The Government should stop subsidising ing the industry and make it cheaper and easier to use less damaging forms of transport such as high speed rail.

We urge you to respond to the Government's public consultation on its UK wide airport expansion which ends on 30 June 2003 after which a 30-year airport strategy will then be devised. http://www.aviation.dft.gov.uk/consult/airconsult If you usually fly away on holiday - please reconsider!

Write to Secretary of State for Transport, Alistair Darling, and have your say before it's too late! http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/transport/press_for_change/email_darling/index.html

or by post to: Rt. Hon. Alistair Darling, MP, Secretary of State for Transport, Department for Transport, Great Minster House, 76 Marsham Street, London. SW1P 4DR.

Chris.

Bath FoE say NO to BAKU Pipeline

On 25th March a mobile 1.2metre diameter pipeline stretching more than 200 metres wound its way through the City of London streets.

Terry and Chris joined hundreds of campaigners, each with 3-metre sections of pipeline that were joined together, in a protest march opposing the BP-led consortium which wants to build 1750km of oil and gas pipelines running from Baku on the Azerbaijan shore of the Caspian Sea, through Georgia and on to Ceyhan on the Turkish shore of the Mediterranean, from whence the fossil fuels will be shipped elsewhere.

BP says the project will only go ahead if 70% of the £2billion cost is paid for by taxpayers’ money! The consortium is courting the UK government and financial institutions which hold public money in their trust, including the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The mobile pipeline called at the EBRD and BP offices, where sections of protest-pipeline were presented to company representatives by FoE and other coalition members, amidst traditional dancing by Kurdish performers.

BP has signed agreements with Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey which make it exempt from any laws - including environmental and labour - that may affect its profits. In addition to hugely contributing to CO2 emissions pollution, the consortium will have priority access over the indigenous people to local water and land. The pipelines will follow a highly active earthquake fault line in Northern Turkey. Due to the regional conflict zones, the pipelines will become a militarised corridor. The Turkish govern ment will be liable for every dollar of construction cost for which the Turkish-section of pipeline goes over budget ö potentially billions of dollars given that BPs project in Alaska went ten times over budget.

Add your voice of protest by emailing Baroness Amos, Secretary of State for International Development http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/climate/press_for_change/baku_ceyhan Further info at www.baku.org.uk

Chris.

Green energy coming from a place near you!

Five green energy power plants are to be built thanks to a government grant. They will be fuelled by energy crops or forestry residues, which are carbon neutral, and will save on thousands of tons of CO2 emissions relative to fossil fuel alternatives. Two of the plants will be based in Frome and Castle Cary, Somerset, with the others to be in Sevenhampton, Wiltshire; Devon and Staffordshire.

Chris.

STOP ESSO

On Saturday 17 May, in the Abbey Courtyard Bath FOE invited members of the public to pose with giant speech bubbles protesting at ESSOs stance on Climate Change. The photos have been sent to ESSO as a continuation of the campaign to highlight the nightmare impacts of future global warming, and Esso's role as a fossil fuel fiend .

Lee Raymond, ExxonMobil’s chairman interviewed by The Economist in March described renewable energy as a “complete waste of money”!

Terry

Waste Recycling

The Government is failing to significantly improve the UK's appalling recycling record, new figures in the 2001/2002 Municipal Waste Management Survey show. The results of the survey coincided with the publication of a report from a committee of MPs on the future of waste management that described the Government as "too timid" and says that "despite warm words from Defra ministers, the Department does not seem to have a real sense of where it wants to go".

The new statistics show that household recycling rose by 1.2 per cent - from 11.2 per cent to 12.4 per cent - leaving the UK languishing near the bottom of Europe's recycling league table. In the South West the household recycling rate rose from 15 per cent to 16.3 per cent.

A private members bill, called the Municipal Waste Recycling Bill, has been introduced by Joan Ruddock MP and is currently going through Parliament. It calls for a 50 per cent recycling rate by 2010.

These are the recycling rates reached by other European countries:

More can be found at www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/waste/news/bill_second_reading.html and www.foe.co.uk/resource/press_releases/friends_of_the_earth_rubbi.html

At the end of June MEPs will vote on new recycling targets for packaging. 60% of the waste we produce comes from packaging so strict targets will increase the amount we recycle overall. UK MEPs are currently opposing high recycling targets for packaging . Write to your MEPs to change their minds. More info at http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/waste/press_for_change/mep/index.html

Plastic bottles are now being collected from the whole of Bath through the green box scheme. Unfortunately there are no markets available for yoghurt pots and margarine tubs, so although they can be collected, they can’t be recycled at the moment.

Furniture and domestic appliances that can be repaired and reused are being collected from households in Bath and North East Somerset. Working with the SOFA Project, all reusable items are repaired and refurbished and made available to low income groups in a new shop in the centre of Bath.

Green waste collection trials are being carried out in small areas of B&NES by Avon FOE. They began in October 2002 and are currently progressing well with more material being collected than was originally expected.These trials test a number of different collection methods and containers and assess the success on a number of factors.

Ellie Dale from The Recycling Consortium and based at envolve has currently been helping Community Centres to set up recycling collections and is developing information packs and certificates to help local centres recycle as much as possible.The Swap It website has also recently been updated with new pages for those interested in finding out more about Action on Waste in B&NES including Handy Hints and a What's On guide.

The Recycling Consortium has regular bookings at RUH and Paulton parent craft classes and regularly attend postnatal groups organised by health visitors and NCT to advise on reusable nappies.New and second hand real nappies are available for sale at the RUH antenatal waiting room on a Monday 2-4pm.

Andy

“I don’t believe it”

Most people have heard of Victor Meldrew, the notoriously grumpy telly OAP. Like Victor, I cannot believe that anything is happening and that after the several months of being the Bath FOE’s transport campaigner, I am actually writing a contribution to the group’s newsletter.

My subject is blundering and bungling bureaucracy. As well as being a Friend of the Earth I also belong to the National Federation of Bus Users. This august and extremely sensible body persuaded me to attend a session of the local Traffic Commissioner’s court in Bristol back in November. First badgerline bus company was being accused of unpunctuality in Weston-super-Mare. Because of the construction in progress of a new rail /bus interchange, the buses had been held up and the Ministry of Transport had noticed their unpunctuality. It is very pleasing to know that this ministry does notice when things go wrong but it is incredible that inspectors who were obviously not from Weston. were sent to do a check-up in precisely that week in which disruption was going to happen anyway.

As the hearing progressed, one felt that the inspectors had stayed in just one place for most of the time in order to be consistent about their bus timings. Apparently, even though buses were later at the official check point, the company had gone to considerable trouble to speed up its vehicles further along their route so as to overcome the problem. It also seemed that the inspectors had not made much of an effort to comprehend what snags the company had had to contend with. What the outcome of all this was, I know not. The hearing lasted all day and at the end the Traffic Commissioner reserved judgement. Perhaps the whole episode has been quietly forgotten. It is important to realise, however that money spent on this hearing was money that has been expended and is no longer available for decent public transport.

A large amount of money appears to be wasted on enquiries of one kind or another. I recently attended meetings concerning the Poole/Southampton to Bristol transport corridor. This exploratory exercise has made news but what are we going to gain? One has the impression that the particular consultants hired for the job have more or less been told to recommend a route for a motorway. It was noticeable that car and lorry drivers had been quizzed about their departure points and destinations. No train or bus users had been interviewed.

Dr Beeching, the man reviled for destroying our railways, did in fact suggest in his plan that railways had scope for expansion if lines were used to transport containers.

Southampton is one of Britain’s foremost container ports but the railway line from there to Bristol does not have a large enough loading gauge to cater for such transportation. It would be possible to improve this line and enhance its loading gauge. The cost of so doing would certainly be high but probably worth it. The alternatives would seem to be either joining up the A36 and the A46, thus ruining the lovely Limpley Stoke valley or carving up the hill overlooking Westbury on which its famous White Horse is situated. In addition another Salisbury by-pass would be required.

The basic reason for the demand for a South Coast to Bristol motorway is Associated British Ports wish to build a new super port at Dibden Bay on Southampton Water. Residents of that beautiful part of the New Forest are up in arms (See Earthmatters, issue 55, page 19)

One senses that the powers that be would like to divide and rule the groups opposed to such pointless schemes. People are not oblivious to the fact that we live in a modern world and so various intelligent suggestions have been put forward. What is unbelievable is that some persons have set ideas in their heads and intend to railroad them into fruition. As the dour and cantankerous Victor Meldrew would say “I don’t believe it” On the other hand, do we? Having watched unseen masters attempt to americanise the British education system, producing much misery, waste and inefficiency in their wake, “Yes, I do believe it” And yes maybe much of the bureaucratic blundering and bungling is part of an insidiously destructive master plan.

John

James Street West contra-flow cycleway

Cyclists passing Green Park Station will have noticed that thanks to a campaign by Bath FOE the new one-way system along James St West includes a contra-flow cycleway all the way from Charles St to Little Stanhope St and a turn left on red for cyclists into it from Charles Street. Residents parking spaces were moved from the south side of the street to the north side.to enable this to happen.

Brilliant!. A small example of how campaigning can work - with a listening council!!.

Terry