http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/7206598?source=Evening

Report on GM crops is damning 

By Victoria Fletcher and Ed Harris, Evening Standard 
16 October 2003 

A damning study will today tell the Government that 75 per cent of GM crops 
would damage the British countryside. 

Long-awaited scientific research will conclude that three out of four 
genetically modified crops could destroy essential weeds and insects. 

Three years' worth of research carried out in fields across Britain, and 
contained in eight scientific dossiers, will reveal that only GM maize should 
be considered acceptable in the UK. 

Results of the farm-scale trials will be presented by a panel of independent 
scientists to the Government today in the most crucial development of the 
debate that has divided farmers, scientists and the public over the last five 
years. 

The study provides the final piece in the jigsaw of evidence needed before the 
Prime Minister can decide whether GM crops should be given the go-ahead to be 
grown in Britain. 

The findings come as Monsanto, the US bio-technology giant which has pioneered 
GM crops, has announced it is pulling out of many of its European operations 
and axing two-thirds of its British workforce. 

Jeff Cox, general manager for Monsanto UK, denied that there was any link with 
the huge opposition to GM crops, but he admitted that the timing of the 
announcement was "unfortunate". 

Monsanto said its closure could affect up to 80 of its British employees at 
its operation in Trumpington, Cambridge. 

Environmental groups today welcomed the study, saying that it was finally 
clear that most genetically modified plants should be banned. 

Pete Riley, from Friends of the Earth, said: "There would be a massive public 
outcry if the Government chose to give the go-ahead to GM crops that cause 
environmental damage." 

The research is based on findings after fields were divided into two and 
planted half with GM winter and summer oilseed rape, beet and maize and half 
with conventional versions of the same crops. 

The normal crops were sprayed with traditional pesticides while the GM plants 
were treated with specially genetically modified weedkillers. 

Scientists assessed what impact these crops - and the herbicides they were 
sprayed with - had on soil organisms, spiders, butterflies, bees and beetles. 

The special pesticides that have to be used on the GM oilseed rape and beet 
were found to cause far more damage to the biodiversity than their 
conventional counterparts. 

The findings come only days after a separate study for the Government found 
that GM seeds could be carried 16 miles - far farther than previously thought 
- by insects, increasing the risk of crosscontamination to other farms. 

There are also suggestions that GM crops can tip the ecological balance in 
many fields and would eventually cause some common weeds and birds to become 
extinct.