Green group says UK gene crop trials flawed
Date: 28-Mar-03
Country: UK
The report from environmental group Friends of the Earth, based on information from researchers who worked on the four-year trial programme, said ecologically significant differences between GM and non-GM crops might be missed.
It said the scope of research was seriously limited by time and resource constraints, with four years seen as too short a period to measure long-term effects.
It also said monitoring of important soil organisms was dropped because of money and time constraints.
"There is no suggestion that the research consultants have not worked to the highest standards but the remit they were given by the government meant they were tied to a research programme that was politically motivated," the group said.
The results of the field trials are likely to play an important role in Britain's decision over whether to grow such crops commercially in the UK.
Environmentalists say GM crops will contaminate traditional varieties and change the countryside, while some scientists argue that they could solve world hunger.
But the study said modelling based on the results will be hampered by a lack of knowledge about interactions between different species and which food sources are preferred by which birds and mammals.
Friends of the Earth said the trial results, due out later this year, were incapable of providing adequate evidence of harm to wildlife as researchers hands were tied.
"The government was not interested in properly investigating the long-term impacts of GM crops, it wanted to avoid the threat of a moratorium," FoE spokesman Pete Riley said.
A spokesman for Britain's Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) dismissed the report as speculation.
"We will have to wait until the results are published," he added.
