THE GOVERNMENT is making consultation on Yorkshire's GM crop tests inaccessible, it was claimed at a York meeting.

Friends of the Earth spokesman Adrian Bebb said a public meeting held in the city, which was attended by fewer than 50 people, was too far away from the communities having tests carried out on their doorsteps.

GM crops will be studied in Bramham, near Tadcaster, Nawton, near Kirkbymoorside, and East Newton, near Withernsea, along with other sites across Yorkshire.

Mr Bebb said: "The meetings that local people have organised themselves are absolutely packed, but the Government's are just too far away.

"You can't expect people to travel all the way to York to attend them. It seems the Government is just going through the motions of consultation."

The meeting, held at the Viking Hotel in North Street, was one of twelve across the country.

The York event was intended to give the public a chance to speak about farms across Yorkshire and as far away as Lincolnshire.

Mr Bebb was joined by the DETR's head of the Biotechnology Safety Group Linda Smith, researcher Geoff Squire and David Carmichael from SCIMAC, the group organising locations for the trials.

Dr Smith said the trials would grow modified crops and normal ones, comparing effects on the surrounding environment.

The results, not due to be published before 2002, would be carefully studied before a decision on allowing commercially-grown GM food was made.

Chris Rowland, a GM opponent from Pickering who attended, said: "It seems they came just to push the GM message, not debate whether it is what is needed which is what we wanted. We were very disappointed that there wasn't a minister here.

"I don't think it has been widely publicised. A lot of people just wouldn't know it was being held."

John Gibson, from Gillamoor, near Kirbymoorside, said: "I think the problems of GM technology are in the future when it is too late to do anything. Now is the time to think about this, before the problems have occurred.

"I think sometimes the Government needs a little bit of geeing up to show them what the public think, and meetings like this are a perfect opportunity to do that."

Other members of the public called for truly independent information so that they could form their views, while some farmers urged people not to be blinded by sensationalism when considering GM crops.

Consumers who carefully avoid buying GM produce are still being exposed to it through "the back door" by unknowingly eating meat reared on modified feeds, food critic Egon Ronay claimed today.

Even shoppers who read all labels are at risk of innocently eating meat reared on GM soya or maize because of lax labelling requirements, Mr Ronay said.