Archived press release

Government adviser attacked over GM advice

13 January 2004

The Government's GM advisor has refused to rule out the commercial development of GM beet and oil seed rape despite acknowledging that GM crop trials showed they would cause "adverse environmental effects". The Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment (ACRE) said "there may be viable mitigation measures that could be used by farmers to offset any adverse effects".

ACRE also gave strong support to a fourth crop - GM fodder maize - saying it "did not demonstrate evidence of adverse environmental impacts". Friends of the Earth said that that the maize GM crop trials can not be used to justify their commercial development as they were fatally flawed.

Friends of the Earth's GM campaigner Pete Riley said:

"ACRE refuses to rule out the commercial development of GM beet and oil seed rape despite overwhelming evidence of the damage it would cause. It also appears to support the commercial development of GM maize even though trials of this particular crop were fatally flawed. GM crops are unpopular, unnecessary and a threat to neighbouring crops and the environment. The Government must not allow them to be commercially grown in the UK."

The FSE results also showed that GM fodder maize, which is resistant to the herbicide glufosinate, was less damaging to biodiversity than conventional maize. But the trials for this GM crop were flawed because:

• Aventis (now Bayer) did not reveal, until the trials were almost over, that glufosinate-atrazine mixtures and double applications of glufosinate are widely recommended in order to ensure a commercially viable crop in the USA;

• Use of the herbicides in the trials were closely managed by Aventis/ Bayer. Friends of the Earth questions whether the FSE's may have been managed to maximise weed cover rather than achieve a commercial yield;

• Crop yield was not measured accurately, so we don't know whether the biodiversity seen in the GM maize trials would ever be acceptable in commercial practice;

• Atrazine, the weedkiller used on three quarters of the conventional maize in the trials, will be banned in the EU from 2005. The FSEs did not compare GM maize with the likely non-GM weed management techniques which will be used in the future;

• The FSE's only looked at the impact on farmland wildlife. Wider issues, such as cross-pollination with neighbouring crops and weedy relatives were not part of the experiment;

• Serious doubts on contamination, food safety and other issues that were raised at a special Government hearing into the GM maize in 2000, have yet to be answered [4].

Before GM maize can be commercially grown it has to receive approval for seeds [5] and pesticides [6] as well as under GM regulations [7].

Notes

1. GM sugar beet, fodder beet and spring oilseed rape.

2. See the Farm Scale Evaluations of Spring sown genetically Modified Crops Paper of a Theme Issue Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of Biological Sciences 29^th November 200 3 Vol 358 Number 1439 pp 1773-1913.

2. www.defra.gov.uk/environment/gm/research/epg-1-5-188.htm

3. www.parliament.the-stationery- ¬
office.co.uk/pa/cm200203/cmselect/cmenvaud/uc1239-iii/uc123902.htm

4.www.foe.co.uk/resource/press_releases/20001109185653.html

5. The Seeds (National Lists of Varieties) regulations 2001

6. Control of Pesticides Regulations 1986 and the Plant Protection Products Regulations 1995 and amendments

7. Environmental Protection Ac 1990 and the Genetically Modified Organism (Deliberate Release) Regulations 2002.

If you're a journalist looking for press information please contact the Friends of the Earth media team on 020 7566 1649.

Published by Friends of the Earth Trust