UK Officials Are Hoping To Shift Their Genetically-Modified Crop Trials To Secret Military Locations In Order To Prevent Their Destruction By Anti-GMO Extremists.

UK officials are hoping to protect genetically-modified crops from the actions of anti-gm extremists. Opponents have targeted almost all of the 54 GM crop trials since 2000. For example, recently more than 400 potato plants were destroyed on a farm at the University of Leeds in June.

Officials also hope to prosecute the groups in the same manner as they do animal rights extremists — good. While I understand and agree with their position, the action is completely hypocritical. It’s like the anti-abortionists who protest the slaughtering of babies by slaughtering doctors.

Currently, scientists must disclose the location of such trials on a government website. Awesome, whomever came up with that legislation must be an opponent to GM crops.

One site for consideration is Porton Down near Salisbury, which carries out military research and includes a science park where they could be securely developed away from the public.

But the question remains: do GM foods hold the key to global food shortages and rising prices?

Though officials are trying to protect these efforts they do want to have a new conversation about GM crops with the public. But Gordon Brown is moving cautiously because of strong opposition from previous trials.

A government source added: “We need to review the security arrangements. The rules are a charter for people who want to stop the experiments. A lot of information has to be put in the public domain and that makes it very easy for people to trash them.”

Leeds University — showing they are suckers for punishment — plans to make one final attempt. They hope a government funded fence and security cameras will thwart any attempts at sabotaging the experiment. Good luck with that.

Professor Tim Benton, research dean at its Faculty of Biological Science, said yesterday: “We need to find a way to do crop trials in a safe way and to minimize the environmental risk. We cannot carry on for the next 20 or 30 years saying it’s too scary, the public is too frightened, it is politically too dangerous. There is absolutely no way we can move towards a world with food security without using GM technology. The amount of food we need could double because the population is growing, climate change will reduce yields and we will take land out of food production for biofuels.”

Officials are trying to draw strong parallels between anti-GM protesters and those that oppose experiments on animals. In 2005 the law was changed to give police the power to prosecute such extreme actions after Huntingdon Life Sciences was targeted and attacked by animal rights activists.

Huh. Maybe there is a GM-centric division of PETA?

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Source: The Independent | Image: Jams_123 on Flickr under Creative Commons