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DEVELOPMENT: GM Crops Suffer Another Blow
By Sanjay Suri
LONDON, Oct 16, 2003 (IPS) - Genetically modified crops have proved a danger
to wildlife in two out of three major experiments carried out in
Britain.
In the third case doubts have been raised about the experiment
itself.
The results of the three-year study published Thursday raised serious
new questions about dangers from genetically modified (GM) crops. The
Government has announced it will investigate the results.
Several non-governmental organisations said the results were
conclusive enough to warrant an immediate ban on GM crops.
The results are being presented to the European Union and are
expected to strongly influence EU policy on GM crops.
The experiments were carried out on three kinds of crops - maize,
beet and spring oilseed rape. GM versions were studied along with
conventional crops.
Growing conventional beet and spring rape was better for many groups
of wildlife than growing GM herbicide-tolerant beet and spring rape,
according to the results released by the Department for Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).
”Some insect groups, such as bees (in beet crops) and butterflies (in
beet and spring rape), were recorded more frequently in and around the
conventional crops because there were more weeds to provide food and
cover,” the report says.
”There were also more weed seeds in conventional beet and spring rape
crops than in their GM counterparts,” according to the report.
That finding was crucial, Clare Oxborrow from Friends of the Earth
told IPS. ”Weeds are a crucial part of maintaining farmland diversity,”
she said. ”Seventy percent of British land is farmland, and a lot of
wildlife is associated with farmland.”
Over the last 50 years, she says, intensification of farming has
meant fewer weeds, and therefore fewer birds and insects that could live
off them. That has meant a direct threat to wildlife.
The experiments showed that with beet and spring rape, the herbicides
used along with the GM crops were so strong that they killed everything
around except that particular plant. GM crops are developed with
matching herbicides that seek to destroy other forms of plant life that
'interfere' with the main plant.
The study found that GM maize was better for many groups of wildlife
than conventional maize. There were more weeds in and around the GM
maize crops, more butterflies and bees at certain times of the year, and
more seeds.
That favourable comparison arose as a result of the lethal
weed-killer used in the conventional maize crops in the comparative
study, Oxborrow says. ”In the conventional crops they used Atrazine,
which was banned in Europe last week because it was well known to be
damaging to the environment. So in that case the GM sample came out
slightly better.”
In this case, she said, it turned out to be a comparison between two
unsustainable systems. The GM crop was ”compared with a system that is
no longer going to be used in the future,” she said.
The case against GM crops is clear as a result of the experiment, she
said. ”Earlier studies have shown that people are overwhelmingly opposed
to GM crops, and that they do not offer any economic benefits,” she
said. ”This study shows they threaten wildlife.”
The results will now be studied by the official Advisory Committee on
Releases to the Environment (ACRE), which will advise the British
government on their implications.
The government will accordingly set its policy on whether GM crops
should be approved for commercial cultivation in the EU. The advice from
ACRE is expected in December or early January.
There are currently no GM crops being grown in Britain, and none have
all the approvals required for commercial cultivation. ”No GM crops can
be sown without further regulatory approval which cannot take place
until next spring at the earliest,” Defra said in a statement.
”The results will not only inform the UK Government's position,”
Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett said after receiving the results
of the farm scale evaluations. ”We are forwarding them to all other EU
member states. They will also, no doubt, want to consider them very
carefully.”
The EU is considering a number of applications for the import or
cultivation of GM crops. Current EU legislation requires decisions to be
taken on the basis of the evidence presented for each crop. No final
decisions on applications for cultivation are likely at EU level until
next year. Any decision is subject to collective agreement by member
states.
The experiment was overseen by a Scientific Steering Committee formed
in May 1999 to oversee the ecological studies that are the farm-scale
evaluations.
The studies were conducted by a consortium of independent contractors
made up of the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Rothamsted Research and
the Scottish Crop Research Institute. (END)
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