UK OKs Syngenta application for new GM wheat trial
Date: 10-Apr-03
Country: USA
Author: Veronica Brown
A spokesman from Britain's Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) said this week an application from Syngenta Seeds Ltd, part of Syngenta AG , to release GM wheat had been approved for a field research site to be run by the company.
"They are purely research and development trials on their own site in Berkshire (southern England)," the spokesman told Reuters.
But organic campaigners said that the development was worrying.
More than 200 groups representing farmers and the organic sector in Canada and the United States are calling for a ban on GM wheat due to fears that one of the world's most lucrative and widely grown commodities could be contaminated by manipulated genes.
UK organic group, The Soil Association, has said GM soya, maize and oilseed rape could have cost the U.S. economy eight billion pounds since 1999 in farm subsidies, lower crop prices, loss of major export orders and product recalls.
It also said that farmers are not achieving the higher profits promised by the biotechnology companies.
"This has been so fiercely fought against in America and Canada because non-GM farmers there are so concerned about contamination and they are fighting really hard to ensure that GM wheat is not introduced there commercially," Soil Association spokeswoman Sue Flook said.
Britain is expected to make a decision later this year on whether to grow gene-spliced crops commercially, but shoppers - bruised by a string of food scares such as mad cow disease - are wary.
Scientists say gene technology could solve world hunger, with GM crops that produce higher yields and are insect, disease and drought resistant.
Opponents say growing such crops could change the face of the countryside, by contaminating traditional varieties.
The government announced a national public debate on GM crops in Britain earlier this year, but drew criticism early when it confirmed a major scientific review of the technology would end before the field trials finish.
UK Environment Minister Michael Meacher, who has spoken out against GM crops, said recently that Britain might implement new measures to protect organic farmers in the event of their crops being contaminated by gene-spliced varieties.
No-one from Syngenta Seeds Ltd could be reached immediately for comment.