Evidence of Hazards of Frankencrops Reach Critical Mass in UK

Six articles below after intro letter

1. Crop's Weed Crossings Highlight GM Fears
2. Scientists Uncover Risks in GM Oil Seed Rape
3. Flaw in crop trials destroys the case for GM
4. Civil Unrest Threat on GM
5. GM Crop Groups Accused of "Trying to Lie"
6. Farmers Can Set Up GM Free Zones.

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

It's been an incredibly busy week on the GM front in the UK. Recent
revelations include:

- University of Reading: GM oilseed rape crosses with wild brassica
relatives.

- Government-sponsored research by the Central Science Laboratory: GM rape
pollen can be carried 26 km (16 miles) by bees.

- Government-sponsored research by the Scottish Crop Research Institute: GM
will contaminate a field for 16 years after initial GM planting, through
volunteers growing from spilt seed.

-European Union legislation: banned the herbicide Atrazine. This means the
UK Farm Scale Trials on GM maize are invalidated. The results are to be
released this Thursday (16 October) but are rumoured to find that of the 3
crops tested (GM beet, GM rapeseed and GM maize), only the GM maize
herbicides were less damaging to the environment than the the conventional
herbicide- Atrazine. Now that Atrazine is banned, it is likely that new
convential herbicides for maize will be less damaging to the environment
than the herbicide that the GM crop uses. Therefore new 3 year trials must
be held comparing GM maize to conventional maize before commercialisation
might be justified.

-1,200 people on Tractors and Trolleys march against GM in London. 70,000
signatures from around the country were collected to hand in to the
government.

- Thousands have signed up to the Green Gloves Pledge to pull up GM crops
should they be planted commercially.

-European Union Environment Minister Margot Wallstrom accuses the US of
lying about GM, and that it was designed to ³solve starvation amongst
shareholders, not the developing world².

-European legislation was also changed to allow regions to declare
themselves GM-free zones.

-This is all added to the fact that last week, agricultural insurance
companies revealed that they would not insure GM crops, and in recent
months, the government's own economic, scientific and public consultations
advised caution about GM commercialisation in the UK.

Tony Blair must have woken up with quite a headache this morning!

Best wishes,

Teresa

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1. Crop's Weed Crossings Highlight GM Fears
Article from Nature, UK. Date: 10 October 2003
Tom Clarke
http://www.nature.com/nsu/031006/031006-13.html

2. Scientists Uncover Risks in GM Oil Seed Rape
Article from the Guardian. Date: 14 October 2003
Paul Brown
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/green/story/0,9061,1062559,00.html

3. Flaw in crop trials destroys the case for GM
Article from the Independent on Sunday. Date: 12 October 2003
Geoffrey Lean
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/environment/story.jsp?story=452418

4. Civil Unrest Threat on GM
Article from The Western Morning News (UK). Date: 14 October 2003
www.westernmorningnews.co.uk

5. GM Crop Groups Accused of "Trying to Lie"
Article from The Financial Times, UK. Date: 14 October 2003
John Mason
http://search.ft.com/search/article.html?id=031014000440&query=john+mason&vs
c_appId=totalSearch&state=Form

6. Farmers Can Set Up GM Free Zones.
Article from the Independent on Sunday. Date: 12 October 2003
Severin Carrell.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/environment/story.jsp?story=452410
***********************************

1. Crop's Weed Crossings Highlight GM Fears

Article from Nature, UK. Date: 10 October 2003
Tom Clarke
http://www.nature.com/nsu/031006/031006-13.html

Wild plants occasionally mix genes with cultivated rapeseed.

Parts of rural Britain are hotspots for sex between a common crop and its
wild relative, a nationwide analysis has revealed1. The discovery
highlights the possible future impact of genetically modified plants on
the country's environment.

The yellow-flowered oil plant rapeseed (Brassica napus) can pollinate its
wild cousin, bargeman's cabbage (Brassica rapa), the study has shown.
Genes from genetically modified rapeseed would probably move in a similar
way, reasons Mike Wilkinson of the University of Reading, UK, who led the
research.

Opponents of transgenic crops in Britain and much of Europe fear that
genes for herbicide tolerance or insect resistance in yet-to-be-introduced
strains might spread in pollen to form invincible weeds. "We're trying to
accumulate data that are relevant for policy-makers," says Wilkinson.

The study adds to a growing body of work being produced by British
scientists on the ecology of transgenic crops. Next week, long-awaited
results from the UK government's Farm-Scale Evaluations of the technology
will be published.

The evaluations look at the impact of farming certain genetically modified
crops on other organisms in the field environment. Gene-flow measurements
have not been included. "This research should help fill that gap," says
Wilkinson.

His team surveyed wild populations of bargeman's cabbage along 316
kilometres of rivers and canals. They found that less than 1 in 10,000
plants had crossed with rapeseed, on average. But on the rare occasions
when wild plants grew as weeds in rapeseed fields, some 2% had crossed
with their cultivated relatives.

Plants in the Midlands, especially along the River Trent and its
tributaries, were most promiscuous. The highest densities of both plants
rub shoulders there, Wilkinson's analysis shows.

"It's an incredibly through study," says ecologist Rosie Hails of the
Centre for Ecology and Hydrology in Oxford, UK. It highlights the fact
that any assessment of the likely spread of modified genes in pollen has
to be done on a national scale. Areas of high gene swapping, such as the
Midlands, could otherwise be missed, she says.

But the study is only a measure of hybridization levels between two
unmodified plants. How human-inserted genes move, and whether they persist
in the environment, are the ultimate questions, she says.

Studies of all the relevant crops would be needed, as the timing and
methods of their pollination vary greatly. "It is a single piece in a very
large jigsaw," says Hails.

References

Wilkinson, M. J. et al. Hybridization between Brassica napus and B. rapa
on a national scale in the United Kingdom. Science, published online,
(2002).

**************************************

2. Scientists Uncover Risks in GM Oil Seed Rape

Article from the Guardian. Date: 14 October 2003
Paul Brown
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/green/story/0,9061,1062559,00.html

Scientists uncover risks in GM oil seed rape - Blow to companies as trials
find bees carry pollen up to 16 miles from modified crop and contamination
lasts longer.

Government scientists have discovered that genetically modified oil seed
rape cannot be contained by separating it from fields of conventional crops,
after bees carried the pollen up to 16 miles (26km) away.

A second piece of research has shown that once GM oil seed rape has been
grown in a field, it would be 16 years before a conventional crop could be
grown in the same field without fear of contamination of more than 0.9%, the
threshold for claiming that the crop was GM free.

The research into oil seed rape, a crop that is grown all over Britain and
is a staple money spinner for farmers, is a serious blow for the government
and the GM companies that had hoped for permission to grow a genetically
modified crop commercially before next spring's planting season. The
government now appears to be faced with a choice of going completely GM on
oil seed rape or protecting conventional and organic farmers by banning it.

The environment department, alerted to the dangers of accidentally spreading
GM varieties into the countryside, has already warned farmers involved in
the GM rape trials not to follow these crops by planting conventional oil
seed rape. It now seems likely that this advice will have to be extended for
some years.

Previous research in Canada and the UK had shown that pollen from oil seed
rape could be carried up to 2 1/2 miles away, but Scottish Crops Research
Institute, using "bait plants" considerable distances from the main crops,
found that contamination occurred up to 16 miles away.

The amount of gene flow rapidly declines over tens of metres and long
distance transfer is "rare". Transfer from one field to the next is around
0.1%, one in 1,000.

Long distance transfer was blamed on bees carrying the pollen back to the
hive and swapping it with other pollen - fertilising plants thought to be
miles out of reach.

The scientists concluded: "Complete (100%) purity cannot be maintained by
geographical separation."

The second study involved the cross-pollination of rape with other wild
relatives and spilt seed regrowing in fields the next year. These plants are
called "volunteers", from their habit of coming up without being planted.

So numerous are these uninvited guests in the field that only rigorous
spraying with weedkiller every year for five years would reduce them to less
than the 0.9% contamination level for the new crops to be classed as non-GM.
If the field was not sprayed, the model predicted that the presence of the
original variety in subsequent crops would not fall below 1% for 16 years.

Friends of the Earth's GM campaigner, Pete Riley, who was marching in London
with 1,000 other people yesterday to demand that Britain was kept free of GM
crops, said: "News that pollen from GM oil seed rape can travel over 16
miles highlights the enormous damage that will be caused to our food and
environment if GM crops are commercially grown.

"If GM contamination cannot be controlled in test sites, what hope is there
if GM crops are widely grown. The govern ment must protect the environment,
consumers and keep Britain GM-free."

The protesters, who included the former environment minister Michael
Meacher, handed in a 70,000-strong petition to Downing Street ahead of the
publication on Thursday of the results of three years of crop trials into
the effect of GM crops on the UK countryside.

Ben Aylisse, of Greenpeace, said: "Tony Blair threatens irreversible
environmental damage to the British countryside if he insists on introducing
GM."

The EU environment commissioner, Margot Wallstrom, said on a visit to London
that farmers in EU areas opposed to GM could declare GM-free regions to
protect each other.

Not all the news for the GM industry was bad yesterday. Tests carried out on
forage maize and sweet corn, two varieties of the same crop, showed that
this pollen did not travel. Bees were not involved in the process, and
levels of contamination were low beyond both 80 metres and 200 metres trial
separation distances.

A separation distance of only 24.5 metres would be required to meet the 0.9%
threshold demanded by the EU, according to the scientists. A separation of
80 metres would be sufficient to ensure cross-pollination levels were below
0.3%.

Maize does not have wild relatives in Britain, so cross contamination with
weeds is not a problem.

The government announced yesterday that it would not prosecute Bayer
CropScience for breaching rules during the GM crops trials. Seeds passed for
trial in the UK were mixed accidcentally with other GM seeds which were not
licensed. The government was sufficiently alarmed by the incidents to
introduce tougher rules to stop it occuring.

The incidents took place last year at 22 GM trial sites in England and three
in Scotland. The procurator fiscal is considering a prosecution for the
Scottish contamination.

The government's Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment
investigated the Bayer incident and reported that the seed, which was
produced in Canada, contained 2.8% of unapproved GM material. In 2000, a GM
seed company, Advanta, sold "conventional" seed contaminated with unlicensed
GM material to British farmers. The resulting crops had to be destroyed, but
the firm was not prosecuted.

********************************

3. Flaw in crop trials destroys the case for GM

Article from the Independent on Sunday. Date: 12 October 2003
Geoffrey Lean
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/environment/story.jsp?story=452418

Vital tests, which the Government planned to use to justify the planting of
genetically modified maize in Britain, have been invalidated, The
Independent on Sunday can reveal.

Michael Meacher - who as environment minister set up the trials, the results
of which are due to be published on Thursday - said yesterday that the
three-year tests will have to be done all over again, and that until then
the Government "could not responsibly license GM crops".

The tests have been rendered invalid by a new European Union ban on a toxic
weedkiller, called atrazine, which is used on maize but is suspected of
causing cancer and "gender-bender" effects. The use of the chemical - which
was employed in the tests - is central to the Government's case that growing
modified maize is relatively benign to the environment.

The ban - which could not have come at a more embarrassing moment for Tony
Blair and his ministers - appears to knock away the last prop of their
strategy to introduce GM crops to Britain, crowning a summer of setbacks. In
July two reports by the Prime Minister's own officials and advisers, which
had been expected enthusiastically to endorse the technology, instead urged
caution. And last month a public consultation recorded majorities of nine to
one against GM foods and crops.

The EU's move is crucial because the trials specifically concentrated on the
effects of using different herbicides on GM and conventional crops. In a
manoeuvre which environmentalists suspect was designed to make the tests as
easy for the new technology as possible, they did not focus on the main
threat: that genes from the modified plants would escape, creating
superweeds and contaminating ordinary crops nearby.

However, leaks of the trial results suggest, as first reported by The
Independent in the summer, that the herbicides used on two of the three
planned GM crops - sugar beet and oilseed rape - damage wildlife and nearby
plants more than those used on conventional ones.

Growing of GM maize, by contrast, appears to have be found to be less
damaging than normal farming of the cereal. Ministers have therefore been
preparing to give it the green light, while banning GM oilseed rape, and
postponing the introduction of GM sugar beet.

But the GM maize only appeared to perform well because the herbicide used on
the conventional crop was the particularly hazardous atrazine. Last week it
was banned by the EU under its Plant Protection Products Directive.

The Department of Environment admitted late last week that the ban - imposed
by the EU's regulatory body, the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and
Animal Health - meant that atrazine would have to be phased out in Britain
within 12 months: this means it would probably be withdrawn from use before
any GM maize was grown commercially,

The phase out means that another less-damaging herbicide would have to be
used on conventional maize. This might well be more benign than the ones
used on GM maize, removing the justification for growing the modified crop.
But, at any rate, the trials could only be valid if they were repeated using
the new herbicide - a step that would delay the introduction of the GM crop
for years.

Last night Mr Meacher said; "The ban on atrazine means that the trials are
no longer valid because they no longer make a true comparison between the
herbicides that would be used on GM and conventional maize. Clearly we have
now got to have further trials, using the weedkillers that are actually
going to be used. I do not see how the Government can now responsibly
license GM crops. All the elements of its own investigation over the summer
have now proved negative, or at best sceptical, to the case for genetic
modification."

Ministers, however, will still be under pressure from Downing Street to try
to find some way of giving the green light to the technology, because Tony
Blair remains committed to it. But the invalidation of the tests and the
outcome of the Government's reports and public consultation means that
environmentalists would almost certainly challenge any such decision in the
courts.

**********************************

4. Civil Unrest Threat on GM

Article from The Western Morning News (UK). Date: 14 October 2003
www.westernmorningnews.co.uk

Protesters warn Government of more to come

Westcountry campaigners against GM crops last night warned Tony Blair that
he would provoke "civil unrest" if he pressed ahead with plans to allow the
controversial crops to be grown in the UK.

Campaigners from the region joined a mass protest in Westminster yesterday
just days before the Government reveals the results of its scientific trials
into the environmental safety of GM crops.

Several thousand people are believed to have signed the "Green Gloves"
pledge, committing themselves to taking part in, or supporting, direct
action to dig up GM crops.

Mike Drummond, one of three campaigners who cycled to London from Totnes, in
Devon, to highlight the protest, said he would be prepared to break the law
if Tony Blair gives the go-ahead to the commercialisation of GM crops in the
next few weeks.

Mr Drummond, 24, said: "If commercial growing goes ahead the crops will be
pulled up. Breaking the law is a last resort but if I had to I would. If
that is what it comes to and democratic pressure is not getting the message
across then it will have to be done."

Fellow Totnes cyclist Liz Snook, who once faced charges of criminal damage
over the destruction of £500,000-worth of GM crops at a trial site in Devon,
said: "I will continue to pull up GM crops if necessary. Time after time it
has been shown that there is a lawful excuse for the destruction of GM crops
because they cause criminal damage to the crops of neighbouring farms.

"Despite all the evidence and the strength of public opinion I think the
Government are quite stupid enough to allow the commercialisation of GM
crops. Our message to them is that we are not having it and there will be
civil unrest if they try."

Former Environment Minister Michael Meacher, who applauded Ms Snook, told
the rally of around 700 protesters that they were winning the argument on GM. Mr
Meacher cited the Government's economic report and scientific review on GM,
both of which raised serious concerns about the technology. And he said that
the recent public debate had shown that people were overwhelmingly opposed
to GM crops.

He added: "This is the freedom movement in our country now. There is no more
basic human right of people than to decide what food they are going to eat.
I think we are well on the way to winning."

In a message to Mr Blair, he added: "You have told us Tony that you are
listening. What we want to know is have you heard?"

On Thursday the results of the GM crop trials will be published. Reports
already suggest that they will raise serious concerns about at least two of
the three crops being tested. The Government is expected to make a decision
on whether to allow GM crops to be grown by the end of the year.

Yesterday's colourful protest included stops at Downing Street, the
headquarters of the National Farmers Union and the Department for
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, where petitions against GM were handed
in. The "tractors and trolleys" protest involved both farmers and consumers.

Somerset organic farmer Robert Mann drove his tractor to London to take part
in the protest. Mr Mann said any decision to allow GM crops to be grown
commercially could threaten his business.

He added: "It is good to see farmers and consumers working together on this.
Farmers should do more and say more about this. There is no market for GM
here - most people do not want it."

The Cornish flag was also flown at yesterday's demonstration. Rita Thompson,
whose family hail from Redruth, was one of hundreds of protesters pushing a
shopping trolley through the streets of central London. "We don't want GM
food in Cornwall," she said. "It's as simple as that."

Keith Hatch, Friends of the Earth GM campaigner in the South West, said:
"More than 1,000 people turned out for the Tractor and Trolley parade. We
have had a very positive response and with some people dressed up as
pantomime farmyard animals and music, there has really been a jovial
atmosphere. This is a celebration of organic food and local food. The only
person who doesn't seem to be listening is Tony Blair. There has been a
massive show of support against GM and I think this shows that we are going
to win the campaign."

Charlotte Oliver, a GM-free campaigner who cycled from Totnes to London for
the parade, said: "It has been really successful. People have dressed up in
the most amazing outfits, there were five tractors and about 200 trollies
and I think it will make a big difference to the what the Government will now
decide. Tony Blair is incredibly isolated on this issue."

Friends of the Earth South West regional campaigner Mike Birkin joined the
parade by cycling to London from Land's End.

He said: "This is a really critical opportunity for us to put our views
forward because the Government is likely to be making a decision about the
future of GM in Britain over the next few weeks. We had to make as much
noise as we could to make the Government understand just how much we do not want
GM.

"By cycling from Land's End to London I was able to meet up with groups of
farmers and different people who were unable to make it to the parade
themselves. So by talking to them beforehand I was able to take their
message to London for them.

"It has been a beautiful day and been a chance for everyone from all around
the country to put forward their views about the future of food and farming.
At this stage everything counts. It is very important for the Government to
receive the petitions and Green Gloves reports that will then make them
realise people are watching them and will be judging them on what they
decide to do - votes really do count."

*************************************

5. GM Crop Groups Accused of "Trying to Lie"

Article from The Financial Times, UK. Date: 14 October 2003
John Mason
http://search.ft.com/search/article.html?id=031014000440&query=john+mason&vs
c_appId=totalSearch&state=Form

The debate over genetically modified crops intensified yesterday after a
European Union commissioner accused biotech companies of misleading people
over the benefits of the technology.

Margot Wallstrom, environment commissioner, said Europe's five-year
moratorium on GM crops should be lifted, but urged companies to act
responsibly and develop appropriate products to win public confidence.

"They tried to lie to people, trying to force it (GM) upon people. We have
not accepted that. They have learnt a lesson from it. When they argued about
feeding the starving, why did they not start out with these products?
Feeding the starving shareholders, yes, but not others," she told
journalists in London.

Croplife, the biotech industry association, denied its members had misled
the public over GM crops. Ms Wallstrom's comments showed a "poor
understanding" of research and development-based industries, which had to
make a profit before investing in subsistence crops, it said.

Ms Wallstrom said consumers and farmers had legitimate concerns over the
health and environmental impacts of GM crops. However, the European Union
had responded by drawing up a tough regulatory system, including
traceability and labelling rules, to handle the introduction of the crops
and this should now be put to the test.

"We have to be able to demonstrate to the rest of the world that the
European approach works. How else can we explain to the United States that
this is the European way of doing things? We have to be able to work with it
and implement it."

The UK's farm-scale trials of GM crops, whose results will be published on
Thursday, would have a significant impact on possible approvals of GM crops
within Europe, she said. The trials, the largest-ever experiments into the
ecological impact of GM crops, are expected to give mixed verdicts on the
planting of transgenic maize, sugar beet and oil-seed rape.

"We asked the scientists and experts. If they say it is dangerous to health
or the environment, we should say so," Ms Wallstrom said.

She also said she remained confident Russia would ratify the Kyoto protocol
on climate change, enabling it to come into full legal effect. Russia had
delayed ratifying the treaty because it was attempting to link this with
other trade and energy issues, she said. The US had also put indirect
pressure on Russia not to ratify, Ms Wallstrom added.

*************************

6. Farmers Can Set Up GM Free Zones.

Article from the Independent on Sunday. Date: 12 October 2003
Severin Carrell.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/environment/story.jsp?story=452410

Farmers are to be allowed to set up voluntary "GM-free zones" in a major
U-turn by the European Commission, The Independent on Sunday can reveal.

Ministers have already hinted that they could use the new power - which
comes into force next month - because it would help them to head off
intensifying public and political opposition to genetically modified crops.

A series of damaging official reports on GM technology - including studies
by Tony Blair's policy unit and chief scientist - has forced the Government
to rethink plans to press ahead with GM crops.

The pressure on ministers is mounting. More than 30 local councils, as well
as the Welsh Assembly and the Lake District National Park Authority, have
declared themselves GM-free. And a dozen councils are to ask the European
Union to ban GM crops from being planted in their areas.

Michael Meacher, the former environment minister, said the new EU policy was
a "significant shift" and a "considerable advance" in official thinking.

Earlier this year, the Agriculture Commissioner, Franz Fischler, rejected
calls for exclusion zones to be set up. But late last month he told EU
farming ministers in Brussels that he now favoured setting up voluntary
zones.

This would allow farmers, businesses and councils in an area to agree to
declare themselves "GM-free", but they could also agree to set up "bio
zones", where modified crops would be planted.