Select Committee on Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Written Evidence


Memorandum submitted by Joseph Mishan, Co-ordinator Stort Valley Friends of the Earth (A4)

  I would like to contribute to the enquiry into the conduct of the GM Nation debate by letting you know of my own experience. I am the co-ordinator of a local Friends of the Earth group based in Hertfordshire.

  I phoned the GM Nation number one week into the debate and asked for one hundred information/response packs which I was intending to distribute to our membership and to give out at a stall in the Bishops Stortford Carnival day. I was also in the process of organising a public debate but I did not yet have a date for this.

  I was told that I could not have packs if I did not have a date for a public debate. When I protested about the very short time allowed for arranging a debate, I was put through to a senior member of staff who told me that the packs were "not for handing out at street corners", and had to be part of a balanced debate. However, she promised to discuss my request further with her seniors. I was eventually allowed 50 packs.

  I am amazed that the packs were not given out more freely, but had conditions attached. My group have recently been part of the Government consultation on airport expansion, and in this case packs were sent out without question. I understand that the GM packs were designed to be part of a formal debate, but given the very restricted time frame there should have been more flexibility on this. I also see no reason why giving them out on street corners was prohibited: I would have thought the street is a venue which is very representative of the population, and a good way to publicise this issue.

  (I have finally been able to organise a debate with a local church group, but it is way outside the six weeks of the debate).

  The impression I was left with was that the debate had to be run in accordance with Government specifications, just in case the response from the public was not what was wanted. The "balanced debate" idea was I presume an attempt to counteract the well-known public antagonism to GM. However the packs were in themselves quite balanced and would therefore be quite adequate in themselves. Also, as a Friends of the Earth group we are part of the balanced debate: if there are other groups who are pro-GM then they are also part of it. This reflects the debate on airport expansion which is also characterised by pro and anti groups which together make up a balance.

  In short I object to the very short time frame of the debate and to the problem I had in obtaining packs which should have been freely available and not provided only under certain conditions.

9 September 2003





 
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