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Biotech crop trial flaws problematic for UK govt
(Sunday, Oct. 12, 2003 -- CropChoice news) -- Geoffrey Lean, The Independent (UK):
Vital tests, which the Government planned to use to justify the planting of
genetically modified maize in Britain, have been invalidated, The
Independent on Sunday can reveal.
Michael Meacher - who as environment minister set up the trials, the results
of which are due to be published on Thursday - said yesterday that the
three-year tests will have to be done all over again, and that until then
the Government "could not responsibly license GM crops".
The tests have been rendered invalid by a new European Union ban on a toxic
weedkiller called atrazine, which is used on maize but is suspected of
causing cancer and "gender-bender" effects. The use of the chemical - which
was employed in the tests - is central to the Government's case that growing
modified maize is relatively benign to the environment.
The ban - which could not have come at a more embarrassing moment for Tony
Blair and his ministers - appears to knock away the last prop of their
strategy to introduce GM crops to Britain, crowning a summer of setbacks. In
July two reports by the Prime Minister's own officials and advisers, which
had been expected enthusiastically to endorse the technology, instead urged
caution. And last month a public consultation recorded majorities of nine to
one against GM foods and crops.
The EU's move is crucial because the trials specifically concentrated on the
effects of using different herbicides on GM and conventional crops. In a
manoeuvre which environmentalists suspect was designed to make the tests as
easy for the new technology as possible, they did not focus on the main
threat: that genes from the modified plants would escape, creating
superweeds and contaminating ordinary crops nearby.
However, leaks of the trial results suggest, as first reported by The
Independent in the summer, that the herbicides used on two of the three
planned GM crops - sugar beet and oilseed rape - damage wildlife and nearby
plants more than those used on conventional ones. Growing of GM maize, by
contrast, appears to have be found to be less damaging than normal farming
of the cereal. Ministers have therefore been preparing to give it the green
light, while banning GM oilseed rape, and postponing the introduction of GM
sugar beet.
But the GM maize only appeared to perform well because the herbicide used on
the conventional crop was the particularly hazardous atrazine. Last week it
was banned by the EU under its Plant Protection Products Directive.
The Department of Environment admitted late last week that the ban meant
atrazine would have to be phased out in Britain within 12 months: this means
it would probably be withdrawn from use before GM maize was grown
commercially.
Last night Mr Meacher said; "The ban on atrazine means that the trials are
no longer valid because they no longer make a true comparison between the
herbicides that would be used on GM and conventional maize. Clearly we have
now got to have further trials, using the weedkillers that are actually
going to be used. I do not see how the Government can now responsibly
license GM crops."
Ministers will still be under pressure to try to find some way of giving the
green light to the technology. But the invalidation of the tests and the
outcome of the reports and public consultation means environmentalists would
almost certainly challenge any such decision in the courts.
Source: http://news.independent.co.uk/low_res/story.jsp?story=452418&host=3&dir=58 | |
