Saturday 22nd July saw growers and supporters from across the UK descend on Norwich to help deliver 40 boxes of organic blight-resistant potatoes to the Sainsbury Laboratory to highlight the re-emergence of open-air field trials and the £1.7 million of public money being spent in the hunt for a GM blight-resistant spud. In the morning speeches from Emma Hockridge, head of Policy at the Soil Association and Pete Riley of GM freeze argued that GM is a risky, expensive and outdated technology which has spectacularly failed to deliver commercial crops with significant benefits to farmers or consumers.
Peter Lundgren, a conventional farmer from Lincolnshire, described the ongoing research as "flogging a dead horse". "Why are we throwing good money after bad when we already have six varieties of blight resistant potatoes in the marketplace available for growers? The GM industry makes a great effort to suggest that existing varieties don't taste good." "Look" said Mr Lundgren pointing to children in the crowd tucking into hot blight-resistant potatoes being served by the local Greenhouse café. "That's the real test."
On Sunday 23rd those taking part in the protest held a sumit nearby to discuss plans for future actions and demonstrations - for more info on this and upcoming events see: www.stopgm.org.uk