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The Independent
29 September 1999GM POLLEN CAN TRAVEL MILES
FROM TESTING SITE
GENETICALLY MODIFIED pollen travelled more than three miles from trial sites, according
to new research, which came out yesterday, as the Government announced its toughest
restrictions on GM testing.
Michael Meacher, the Environment minister, told the Labour party conference in Bournemouth
that there would be no commercial plantings in the UK until he was convinced there was no
risk to human health or the environment.
But Mr Meacher's insistence that trials should continue was undermined when a new study
showed that pollen from a farm site in Oxfordshire had travelled beyond the 50 metre
separation distance designed to protect neighbouring crops.
The research, carried out by the National Pollen Research Unit, for Friends of the Earth,
found that GM oilseed rape pollen had been carried three miles by bees and nearly 500
metres by air. The study, the first published since the trials began, was seized on by
environmentalists as evidence of the threat that GM crops posed to non-GM and organic
farmers, bee-keepers and the environment.
Mr Meacher said: "There will be no commercial plantings in the UK unless and until we
are convinced that we have enough information to be sure that there is no risk to the
human food chain and no damage to the environment," he said.
"If the results of the trials show that there are unacceptable consequences, then
there will be no commercial plantings at all. That is the only rational way to
proceed."
Mr Meacher declared that his policy was sensible, right and would in the long term
"even prove popular", but abandoning the trials would remove the "one
route" that could allow an outright ban. "The truth is there are some potential
environmental and agricultural benefits from GM technology as well as some commercial
opportunities for the UK. Those who vandalise the trials are saying that their views - not
backed up by science - should take precedence over all others. Frankly I think that is
arrogant and undemocratic."
Mr Meacher's commitment to a ban was welcomed by environmentalists. But Charles Secrett,
executive director of FoE, said that the new research at Model Farm, near Watlington,
Oxfordshire, proved that it was time to impose a moratorium on all trials. |