Protesters are planning to pull up genetically modified crops grown in Oxfordshire.

Oxford-based campaigners were the first in the country to target so-called "Frankenstein foods" when they uprooted crops at a farm near Watlington last year.

The recent controversy over the Government's handling of the GM foods issue has prompted protesters to plan more raids in Oxfordshire.

Kathryn Tulip, of the Genetix Snowball campaign, said: "It is very exciting because people and scientists are starting to say what we have believed for a long time now.

"I think we are going to have an environmental disaster if we do not stop planting these crops. We just do not know what we are doing to them."

Private companies grew genetically modified crops at five test sites on farms in Abingdon, Wantage, Banbury, Nuneham Courtenay and Watlington last year.

The plants - mainly oilseed rape for use in vegetable oil and margarine - were part of trials aimed at winning commercial licences from the Government. So far, the Government has only confirmed that there is one site in the county, believed to be near Abingdon. Ms Tulip and four other Oxford women were arrested at Model Farm, in Shirburn, near Watlington, after they began pulling up crops at the launch of Genetix Snowball in July.

US biotechnology firm Monsanto, which was responsible for the tests, later won injunctions against the women, banning them from its 70 test sites in the UK.

The five are to fight the injunctions at a High Court hearing in April and are inviting the public to a "direct action" protest on April 17.

Ms Tulip, 39, a solicitor and former toxicologist, said: "We do not know yet how many test sites there will be in Oxfordshire this year. A lot of farmers are opposed to GM crops."

Genetix Snowball, which also has members in Manchester, London and Brighton, is one of 20 protest groups nationwide and has published more than 700 handbooks on GM foods.

It is demanding a five-year suspension of all trials on GM foods while more research is carried out on possible health risks and the dangers of cross-pollination.

Story date: Thursday 18 February

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