PA News— Opponents of GM technology today seized on the results of the largest field-scale crop trials ever carried out in the UK.
Groups calling for a GM ban said evidence from the trials that growing certain genetically modified crops is worse for wildlife than conventional varieties proved the risks to the environment.
And they predicted that commercial use of the crops could be "the final nail in the coffin for some species".
But the long-awaited study, by the Scientific Steering Committee which oversaw the nationwide trials, also found that other GM crops were good for wildlife.
The findings showed that some insects such as bees in beet crops and butterflies in beet and spring oilseed rape were recorded more often in and around conventional crops than herbicide-tolerant GM varieties because there were more weeds to provide food and cover.
There were also more weed seeds in conventional beet and spring rape crops than in their GM counterparts. These seeds are important in the diet of some animals and birds.
However, the results showed that some groups of soil insects were found in greater numbers in herbicide-tolerant GM beet and spring rape crops.
There were also more weeds in and around herbicide-tolerant GM maize crops, more butterflies and bees around at certain times of the year and more weed seeds.
But there has been criticism over the use of a weed killer Atrazine on conventional crops in the trials as it is highly efficient compared to the gentler herbicide used on GM maize.
GM critics, led by former Environment Minister Michael Meacher, who launched the field scale evaluations in 1999, said that as Atrazine is to be banned by the EU the trials are not valid and should be re-done.
The trials have been dogged by controversy from the start when environmental groups destroyed some crops warning of the dangers of cross-pollination which it was claimed would destroy the livelihoods of organic farmers.
Opponents also fear GM crop technology could lead to the emergence of new herbicide-resistant weeds which could cause havoc in the countryside.
The researchers today stressed that the differences they found are not a result of the way in which the crops have been genetically modified.
They arose because the GM crops gave farmers taking part in the trial new options for weed control. They used different herbicides and applied them differently.
The results will now be sent to the Government's statutory advisers on GM crops, the Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment (ACRE), who will then advise ministers of their conclusions.
Environment Minister Elliot Morley said: "It would be wrong to take knee jerk reactions to these trials. I think they do need careful evaluating."
He ruled out commercial planting in 2004 and said there were a number of "hurdles" that GM applications had to cross first before there was any possibility of approval, quite apart from the EU regulatory process to be gone through.
The head of the research team Dr Les Firbank said that the results of the oilseed rape and beet trials showed a trend towards "harmful" impacts on wildlife.
He said: "The results are clearly important to the debate about the possible commercialisation of GM crops.
"But they also give us new insights that will help us conserve biodiversity within productive farming systems."
Patrick Holden, director of the Soil Association, which campaigns for organic food production, said: "We've always been critical of the scientific methodology of the trials as being too narrow, but even so the results show that GM crops would damage the environment.
"The Government mustn't use the maize results as a fig-leaf justification for GM crops.
"GM maize cross pollinates very easily by wind and, if commercial planting was given the go ahead, would pose a real danger both to conventional and organic farmers."
There was also criticism from leading environmental groups.
Friends of the Earth spokesman Pete Riley told PA News: "The results for GM oilseed rape and beet leave the Government no alternative but to ban these crops from the UK.
"They have a serious impact on agricultural wildlife and could lead to extinctions of birds in the short term.
"For maize crops we are very unconvinced by the quality of the experiment. There is no evidence to show the GM maize crop would be commercially viable."
Greenpeace executive director Stephen Tindale said: "These trials were a political fudge that did not begin to address the possible catastrophic effects that GM could bring about.
"But even within their limited scope, they clearly show that the alleged benefits of GM do not exist.
"For years the GM corporations have been claiming that their crops would reduce weed killer use and benefit wildlife. Now we know how wrong they were. Tony Blair should close the door on GM for good."
Intensive agricultural methods and the heavy use of chemical pesticides and herbicides since the Second World War have led to serious declines in populations of skylarks, corn buntings and other farmland birds, as vital insect food source have been wiped out.
Dr David Gibbons, head of conservation science at the RSPB and a member of the steering committee overseeing the trials, said the FSE results were "unexpectedly dramatic".
He said there would be far less food for farmland birds if GM beet and spring oilseed rape were grown commercially.
"Agricultural intensification has already caused declines of these birds and these two crops will undoubtedly worsen their plight."
He told the news conference of the different impacts that GM crops would probably have had on wildlife if they had been "around over the last five or ten years."
GM maize would probably have increased biodiversity in the areas it was grown, he said.
But for oilseed rape and beet "the implications are that things would have gone the other way".
Dr Sue Mayer, director of GeneWatch, a science and policy group which looks at the issues surrounding genetic engineering described the results as "shocking".
She added: "The UK's farmland wildlife has been decimated by intensive farming. If we grow herbicide tolerant crops here it may be the final nail in the coffin for some species."
source: http://www.news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2059262 16oct03
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