[B] GMOs: UK govt in contact with France amid new rogue crop fears July 11, 2000 By Veronica Brown, BridgeNews London--July 10--The British government is "keeping in touch" with French authorities to get further information amid fears that GM contaminated maize may have been sown in the United Kingdom, an official from the U.K. Agriculture Ministry said Monday. * * * The French government is deliberating over what action to take after 3,000 hectares of maize planted in the southwest were found to contain "less than 1%" of genetically modified material. Three varieties of GM contaminated maize were found in the crops during testing by French anti-fraud authorities. "We are making inquiries and we're keeping in touch with the French authorities to gain further information specifically on the varieties that were affected there," the spokesman said. "We are trying to find out whether we import those varieties. The Agriculture and Environment ministries along with the Food Standards Authority are considering what the implications would be if those varieties are found to have been planted here," the official added. Two of the three varieties found, BT 11 and BT 176--which is also resistant to antibiotics--were formulated by Swiss-based life science company Novartis. No-one at Novartis U.K. was immediately available for comment. The U.K. government came under heavy attack when news emerged two months ago showing that oilseed rape had been imported and planted here over a two-year period. The government did not make the information public until six weeks after it was informed. Environmental pressure group, Greenpeace, claimed on May 24 that up to 15% of the 2000 European maize crop was contaminated with GM material. Answering questions in the House of Commons May 25, U.K. Agriculture Minister Nick Brown said the government had not received any indication that maize planted in Britain contained any GM varieties. End [Begin BridgeLinks] Veronica Brown, BridgeNews Tel: +44-20-7832-9081 Send comments to grain@bridge.com