GM Crops Get Bad Marks In New Experiments

by Sanjay Suri

In the third case doubts have been raised about the experiment itself.

The results of the three-year study published Oct. 16 raised serious new questions about genetically modified (GM) crops. The Government has announced it will investigate the results.

Several non-governmental organizations said the results were conclusive enough to warrant an immediate ban on GM crops.

The results are being presented to the European Union and are expected to strongly influence EU policy on GM crops.

The experiments were carried out on three kinds of crops -- maize, beet and spring oilseed rape. GM versions were studied along with conventional crops.

Growing conventional beet and spring rape was better for many groups of wildlife than growing GM herbicide-tolerant beet and spring rape, according to the results released by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).

"Some insect groups, such as bees in beet crops and butterflies in beet and spring rape, were recorded more frequently in and around the conventional crops because there were more weeds to provide food and cover," the report says.

"There were also more weed seeds in conventional beet and spring rape crops than in their GM counterparts," according to the report.

That finding was crucial, Clare Oxborrow from Friends of the Earth told IPS. "Weeds are a crucial part of maintaining farmland diversity," she said. "Seventy percent of British land is farmland, and a lot of wildlife is associated with farmland."

Over the last 50 years, she says, intensification of farming has meant fewer weeds, and therefore fewer birds and insects that could live off them. That has meant a direct threat to wildlife.

The experiments showed that with beet and spring rape, the herbicides used along with the GM crops were so strong that they killed everything around except that particular plant. GM crops are developed with matching herbicides that seek to destroy other forms of plant life that 'interfere' with the main plant.

In one situation, the study found that GM maize was better for many groups of wildlife than conventional maize. Unlike the other experiments, there were more weeds in and around the GM maize crops, more butterflies and bees at certain times of the year, and more seeds.

That favorable comparison arose as a result of the lethal weed-killer used in the conventional maize crops in the comparative study, Oxborrow says. "In the conventional crops they used Atrazine, which was banned in Europe last week because it was well known to be damaging to the environment. So in that case the GM sample came out slightly better."

In this case, she said, it turned out to be a comparison between two unsustainable systems. The GM crop was "compared with a system that is no longer going to be used in the future," she said.

The case against GM crops is clear as a result of the experiment, she said. "Earlier studies have shown that people are overwhelmingly opposed to GM crops, and that they do not offer any economic benefits," she said. "This study shows they threaten wildlife."

The results will now be studied by the official Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment (ACRE), which will advise the British government on their implications.

The government will accordingly set its policy on whether GM crops should be approved for commercial cultivation in the EU. The advice from ACRE is expected in December or early January.

There are currently no GM crops being grown in Britain, and none have all the approvals required for commercial cultivation. "No GM crops can be sown without further regulatory approval which cannot take place until next spring at the earliest," Defra said in a statement.

"The results will not only inform the UK Government's position," Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett said after receiving the results of the farm scale evaluations. "We are forwarding them to all other EU member states. They will also, no doubt, want to consider them very carefully."

The EU is considering a number of applications for the import or cultivation of GM crops. Current EU legislation requires decisions to be taken on the basis of the evidence presented for each crop. No final decisions on applications for cultivation are likely at EU level until next year. Any decision is subject to collective agreement by member states.

The experiment was overseen by a Scientific Steering Committee formed in May 1999 to oversee the ecological studies that are the farm-scale evaluations.

The studies were conducted by a consortium of independent contractors made up of the Center for Ecology and Hydrology, Rothamsted Research and the Scottish Crop Research Institute.