THE debate in France over the safety of genetically modified crops looks sure to hot up this week as the trial of nine anti-GM activists begins.
The defendants, who include the farmers鈥� leader and anti-globalisation activist Jos茅 Bov茅, are charged with destroying a GM crop trial near Foix in the south of the country. They are expected to argue that their actions were justified under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which grants every citizen the right to live in a safe environment. 鈥淲ith genetically modified organisms, this is impossible,鈥� claims Bov茅.
The trial echoes a similar court case in Britain two years ago, when 28 protesters, including Lord Melchett, then director of Greenpeace UK, were acquitted of similar charges of causing criminal damage, after destroying a GM crop trial in Norfolk in July 1999. The British court accepted that the protesters believed they were acting in good conscience to prevent a greater environmental catastrophe.
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The Foix farm-scale trial was set up in 1998 to study gene flow between herbicide-resistant GM oilseed rape (canola) and the related wild radish (Raphanus raphanistrum). Local protesters destroyed the trial in 1999. It was reinstated later that year, and Bov茅 admits to trampling this second crop in April 2000. The crop trial has now been abandoned.
Bov茅 insists that such trials are too risky. 鈥淲hen you know that you can hurt yourself from fire you don鈥檛 need to put your hand on fire to find out,鈥� he says.
The court case comes just as there is growing evidence of the ecological benefits of GM crops. For example, the rapid uptake of insect-resistant GM cotton in China has led to a 25 per cent reduction in pesticide use since the mid-90s, says Gordon Conway, head of the Rockefeller Foundation in Washington DC. 鈥淢any of the environmental benefits of GM have only become well documented in the last year,鈥� he told New 杏吧原创.