http://www.fwi.co.uk/article.asp?con=10225&sec=2&hier=66

Growers 'broke GM trial rules'

Farmers Weekly Interactive
9 May 2003

By Isabel Davies

FARMERS taking part in farm-scale trials of genetically modified crops have
broken husbandry guidelines, claim critics.

A 30-strong group of anti-GM campaigners has written a letter to the Supply
Chain Initiative on Modified Agricultural Crops (SCIMAC).

The letter said the group wanted to challenge the findings of an ADAS audit
which found there was a high level of compliance to SCIMAC guidelines.

It was sent to SCIMAC's chairman Roger Turner and copied to Rural Affairs
secretary Margaret Beckett.

The campaigners claim "numerous" sightings of machinery not been cleaned
between handling GM and non-GM seeds or crops.

And they criticise the way farmers have implemented separation distances,
claiming that that some growers are breaking the rules on buffer zones.

Some producers are planting GM and non-GM varieties side-by-side and only
establishing a buffer zone at harvest, the campaigners claim.

They do this by agreeing to keep any non-GM crop grown in the buffer zone
out of the food chain when they harvest it.

"All in all, we have been appalled at the cavalier attitude of growers to
complying with the SCIMAC guidelines for growing GM crops," said the letter.

The industry body which sets the rules on GM plantings rejected the claims.

But Colin Merritt, SCIMAC board member, said most of the points raised in
the letter were misinterpretations.

The group's main complaint was about separation distances, but SCIMAC's
guidelines in this area were superseded by trial requirements, he said.

"There are some aspects that they raise [in the letter] which are irrelevant
because the crops are not being grown in a commercial situation."

Dr Merritt said the group also complained that some GM growers had not
notified their neighbours they were taking part.

But it was his view that farmers had exceeded the guidelines in this area.

"It all depends on how you define notifying your neighbours. But it is only
a requirement if it impinges [on their cropping]."

The letter also accused Jamie Grant of Roskill Farm, near Munlochy, Scotland
of having said that the SCIMAC guidelines "had to be taken with a pinch of
salt".

Campaigners held a year-long vigil at Mr Grant's farm to protest against a
field of GM oilseed rape.

But Mr Grant said that it had been shown in court that he had not broken any
of the conditions of growing the crops.

"As usual they take things out of context," he said.