Monsanto fears trial sabotage
 The Dominion

AGRICULTURE and chemical company [ Monsanto ] is
worried about the risk of "sabotage or terrorism" in a planned
field test of genetically engineered bread wheat.

The company has applied to evaluate 11 new strains of
engineered wheat -- the first altered wheat to be grown in New Zealand --
in "contained" field trials on a 10,000-square-metre site at Lincoln, in Canterbury.

Though it has revealed the field trial will be in conjunction with the
Crop and Food Research Institute, Monsanto has asked that field test 
locations and dates not be made public "in order to minimise the risk 
of sabotage or terrorism".

In its application to the Government's watchdog on new organisms, the
Environmental Risk Management Authority, issued yesterday, Monsanto 
said it would provide details of security and a site map later.

Signs around the test plots will make no reference to Monsanto, Roundup
Ready wheat, or genetic engineering trials, and security measures at 
the "research farm" will limit public access.

The tighter security is the first evidence of applicants taking up an
authority offer to allow applicants seeking permission for genetically 
engineered crop trials to be less specific about their location. The 
authority made the offer after the Wild Greens -- described as the direct 
action wing of the Green Party -- destroyed a crop of genetically modified 
potatoes grown by Crop and Food at Lincoln in March.

Since then, Pioneer New Zealand has applied to grow genetically engineered
maize in Waikato, but did not seek to keep the site secret. It told a 
public hearing the maize would be grown at a leased Glenbrook Beach Rd 
site, and provided a map of the test site.

Authority chief executive Bas Walker has said people farming next to a
genetically engineered crop trial have a right to know what is going on 
but they can be told informally. -- NZPA

Supplied by New Zealand Press Association

 (Copyright 1999)