UK's Top Policy Advisor Divided Over GM Crops
 
UK: November 26, 2003 - Reuters
 
LONDON - Britain's chief policy advisor on genetically modified (GM) food 
and crops has failed in a long-awaited report to agree on key issues 
governing any future of the technology, making tougher a government 
decision on gene-spliced crops. 
 
In a report published Tuesday, the Agriculture and Environment Biotechnology 
Commission (AEBC) called for strict rules governing the growth of GM crops, 
but did not provide clear guidelines.

The AEBC said its members could not agree whether the acceptable limit of 
GM material in food should be set at 0.1 percent as demanded by the organic 
food lobby, or 0.9 percent as suggested by the biotechnology industry and 
the EU Commission.

Critics say the AEBC report is unlikely to provide much help for the 
government ahead of its key decision next year on whether to allow GM 
crops to be grown commercially.

The report was due to have been published earlier this year, but its 
release date was pushed back because scientists could not agree on a 
threshold limits - crucial if the government is to spell out how GM and 
non-GM crops can co-exist and still leave consumers with a choice of what 
to buy.

The government is currently digesting the results from last month's report 
by scientists that ruled after three years of farm-scale trials, some GM 
crops like rapeseed and sugar beet were more harmful to wildlife than those 
grown conventionally, further fueling demands for the state to keep them out.

"There is a fear that setting a threshold of 0.1 percent seriously threatens 
progress in developing this and possibly other new technologies in farming 
which promise consumer, environmental and other benefits," the report 
concluded.

It suggested that GM and non-GM crops be rigorously tested at an early stage 
to determine whether the lower limit could be maintained.

The AEBC was also divided on compensation.

Although it broadly welcomed a planned EU directive on Environmental Liability, 
whose provisions explicitly extend to environmental damage from the release 
of GM material, the AEBC said it fell short of what was required in some areas 
and recommended some changes to existing UK environmental laws.

"As with the design of co-existence arrangements in relation to 0.1 percent, 
we are divided on the issue of compensation for farmers not just where the 
0.9 percent threshold is exceeded, but also to a 0.1 percent threshold," the 
report concluded.

Draft EU legislation is based around the "polluter pays" principal, but AEBC 
members could not agree whether government, organic farmers or the biotechnology 
industry should liable in the event of cross-contamination.

UK ministers are under pressure to agree a UK regulatory regime for GM crops 
because the EU is poised to lift its five-year moratorium on the crops in the 
next few months, a move which could pave the way for possible cultivation. 

REUTERS NEWS SERVICE