British Insurance Companies Would Not Cover Farmers Growing GM Crops
The general public in the U.K. is deeply opposed to genetically modified crops, and now British farmers have yet another reason not to grow them: No one will insure them. A study by the agricultural organization Farm found that none of Britain’s five major insurance underwriters would be willing to insure farms that were growing (or thinking about growing) GM crops. Nor would they insure non-GM farmers trying to protect themselves against crop contamination. All the companies said too little was known about the long-term effects of GM crops on human and environmental health. Comparing the crops to the likes of asbestos and Thalidomide (the drug that caused gross birth defects in babies), one company said, “There is a real feeling that GM could come back and bite you in five years.”
