On Monday the 3rd of April Michael Meacher MP and former UK Secretary of State for the Environment will give a lecture in the Nordic House in Reykjavík on the future of GM food and medicine crops. Mr Meacher will discuss the present status and future prospects of those issues, particularly the European and North-American settings where governments are officially committed to the precautionary principle in environmental policymaking. Mr Meacher will also review the growth of GM-free zones and whether so-called co-existence is possible.

The host of the meeting is the Information Campaign on GMOs in Iceland. The meeting starts at 20.00 and is open to all interested, free of charge. Mr Meacher will take some questions following his lecture. The meeting is chaired by Dr. Katrín Fjeldsted, GP and Vice-President of the Standing Committee of European Doctors (CPME). See announcement of the meeting in Icelandic.

A Debate Long Overdue
The international GM debate continues to intensify, not least regarding questions about the implications of GM technology for food safety, health and the environment. However, the debate has been relatively limited in Iceland, despite the fact that the general public and the authorities are faced with important questions about labelling, risk assessment, health impact and the licencing of GM crops. It is important for the Icelanders to watch closely the international development of those issues, both as regards independent scientific studies, public attitudes, law and regulations.

The visit of Michael Meacher is particularly welcome, not least since during his years as the Secretary of State for the Environment he launched public consultation among the British public on the GM issue and ordered the first major crop trials to test the comparative environmental impact of GM versus conventional crops. The decision to invite him to Iceland is a part of the Campaign´s efforts to increase the flow of information to the public and to promote debate on an important issue.

About Michael Meacher MP
Michael Meacher is educated at Oxford University´s New College and at the London School of Economics. He is a former lecturer at the LSE and the Universities of Essex, York and Surrey. He was first elected to the Parliament in 1970 and is now one of the most experienced MPs in the House of Commons. Mr Meacher has for a long while been one of the leading figures of the British Labour Party and is tipped as a potential candidate for the post of party leader.

Mr Meacher was a minister in the Wilson and Callaghan governments 1974-1979, he was a front-bench spokesman on numerous issues for the Labour shadow cabinet in 1983-1997, and then he became Secretary of State for the Environment  in the first Blair governments (1997-2003), with responsibility for environment, transport, food and regional affairs.

While serving as environment secretary, Mr Meacher launched (a) a public debate on GMOs, (b) scientific assessment of the GM technology and (c) crop trials on the environmental impact of GM plants. He was at the forefront of negotiations that ultimately led to an international ban on the use of the so-called terminator technology. Micheal Meacher is in high demand as a speaker at conferences and meetings on environmental issues, food policy and politics in general.

For further information please contact erfdabreytt@erfdabreytt.net.