German gene wheat trial dropped after sabotage
Date: 15-Apr-03
Country: GERMANY
German authorities last week gave rn2wIdRef=""/)Syngenta permission to undertake the country's first GM wheat trials in the eastern state of Thuringia.
But shortly before approval was granted activists from environmental pressure group Greenpeace planted organic wheat seed on the test site.
Peter Hefner, a spokesman for rn2wIdRef=""/)Syngenta in Germany, said trials would be moved to other countries such as France and the UK.
rn2wIdRef=""/)Syngenta had applied for permission to test wheat resistant to the fusarium fungus.
Germany bars commercial production of GM crops but permits research plantings.
HAMBURG - Swiss agribusiness group Syngenta AG has abandoned plans to start Germany's first trials of genetically modified (GM) wheat after the site was sabotaged last week, a Syngenta spokesman said yesterday.
German authorities last week gave rn2wIdRef=""/)Syngenta permission to undertake the country's first GM wheat trials in the eastern state of Thuringia.
But shortly before approval was granted activists from environmental pressure group Greenpeace planted organic wheat seed on the test site.
Peter Hefner, a spokesman for rn2wIdRef=""/)Syngenta in Germany, said trials would be moved to other countries such as France and the UK.
rn2wIdRef=""/)Syngenta had applied for permission to test wheat resistant to the fusarium fungus.
Germany bars commercial production of GM crops but permits research plantings.
