- More than two-thirds of conventional crops in the United
States are now contaminated with genetically modified material - dooming
organic agriculture and posing a severe future risk to health - a new report
concludes.
-
- The report - which comes as ministers are on the verge
of approving the planting of Britain's first GM crop, maize - concludes
that traditional varieties of seed are "pervasively contaminated"
by genetically engineered DNA. The US biotech industry says it is "not
surprised" by the findings.
-
- Because of the contamination, the report says, farmers
unwittingly plant billions of GM seeds a year, spreading genetic modification
throughout US agriculture. This would be likely to lead to danger to health
with the next generation of GM crops, bred to produce pharmaceuticals and
industrial chemicals - delivering "drug-laced cornflakes" to
the breakfast table.
-
- The report comes at the worst possible time for the Government,
which is trying to overcome strong resistance from the Scottish and Welsh
administrations to GM maize.
-
- The House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee drew
attention to the problem in North America in a report published on Friday,
and said the Government had not paid enough attention to it. The MPs concluded:
"No decision to proceed with the commercial growing of GM crops [in
Britain] should be made until thorough research into the experience with
GM crops in North America has been completed and published". It would
be "irresponsible" for ministers to give the green light to the
maize without further tests.
-
- Peter Ainsworth, the committee chairman, accuses the
Cabinet of "great discourtesy" to Parliament by making its decision
on the maize last Thursday, the day before the report came out, and plans
to raise the issue with the Speaker of the House.
-
- This week's statement by Margaret Beckett, Secretary
of State for the Environment, is expected to fall short of authorising
immediate planting of the maize, and provide only a muted endorsement for
the technology. She will make it clear that the Government wants the GM
industry to compensate farmers whose crops are contaminated. This could
make cultivation uncommercial. The US study will increase the pressure
on her to be tough.
-
- Under the auspices of the green-tinged Union of Concerned
Scientists, two separate independent laboratories tested supposedly non-GM
seeds "representing a substantial proportion of the traditional seed
supply" for maize, soya and oilseed rape, the three crops whose modified
equivalents are grown widely in the United States.
-
- The test found that at "the most conservative expression",
half the maize and soyabeans and 83 per cent of the oilseed rape were contaminated
with GM genes - just eight years after the modified varieties were first
cultivated on a large scale in the US.
-
- The degree of contamination is thought to be at a relatively
low level of about 0.5 to 1 per cent. The reports says that "contamination
... is endemic to the system". It adds: "Heedlessly allowing
the contamination of traditional plant varieties with genetically engineered
sequences amounts to a huge wager on our ability to understand a complicated
technology that manipulates life at the most elemental level." There
could be "serious risks to health" if drugs and industrial chemicals
from the next generation of GM crops got into food.
-
- Lisa Dry, of the US Biotechnology Industry Association,
said that the industry was "not surprised by this report, knowing
that pollen travels and commodity grains might co-mingle at various places".
-
- http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/environment/story.jsp?story=498693
|
