http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/sti/2001/08/12/stinwenws02015.html?

Sunday Times - August 12, 2001

GM fields spread new superweeds

Jonathan Leake, Science Editor

SCIENTISTS have found strong evidence that genetically modified (GM) crops
can spread long distances from where they have been planted and spawn
"superweeds".

The researchers found that GM rapeseed can blow into neighbouring farms and
that different GM strains can interbreed, producing superweeds that are
resistant to a wide range of herbicides.

The research, carried out in Canada, will raise more doubts about the trials
being conducted in the British countryside.

The government is spending £4m on test plantings of GM oilseed rape, maize
and beet to see if any of them has an impact on wildlife. It has said that
GM crops must be separated from other planted fields by 50-200 metres
depending on the type of crop, but the Canadian results suggest this is far
from enough.

John Culley, western Canada research director at Ag Canada, the government
farming agency, said the study showed that escaped rapeseed was now Canada's
13th worst weed. "We set a gap of 800 metres between GM rapeseed and other
crops but our research has shown that is not enough," he said.

"The rate of spread is quite low, but since half of our rapeseed crop is
transgenic that means a lot of seeds are getting into places they shouldn't.

"We have also found that different types of GM rapeseed, each resistant to a
different type of herbicide, can interbreed with each other and spread. So
you get rapeseed growing as a weed but with resistance to a whole range of
herbicides that would normally get rid of it."

Such problems have emerged largely because of the huge scale of GM
agriculture in Canada - about 12m acres of western Canada have been planted
with rapeseed, of which about 60% is transgenic.

Critics point out that rapeseed has many more wild cousins in Britain and
Europe than in Canada, sharply increasing the range of superweeds that could
result.

Robert Stevenson, a farmer from Kenton, Manitoba, found wind-blown GM
rapeseed growing in his prime seed grass, making it difficult to sell. When
the crop was tested by spraying with glycophosphate, the grass died but the
rapeseed was unaffected. Stevenson was shocked: "I don't want it on my farm.
It's a serious contaminant. I'm at a loss over what to do."

Other farmers agreed. Neil Doupe from Crandall, Manitoba, said: "The
infestation was pretty incredible this year. They towered 2ft over my wheat
crop."

Organic farmers are among those at greatest risk. If GM plants are found in
their crops they can no longer claim organic status and so may lose their
livelihoods.

In western Canada one group of farmers has pooled funds to launch a legal
test case against Monsanto, the firm that produces some types of GM seed.
They want damages for those farmers whose crops have been declared
ineligible for organic status and are also seeking an injunction to stop the
firm releasing its latest GM crop of herbicide-tolerant wheat.

More than 75% of western Canada's thriving organic industry grows wheat,
much of it for export to Europe. Some industry experts believe that
Monsanto's move will cut the world supply of non-GM wheat and force the
European Union to relax its anti-GM rules.

Wally Hamm, head of ProCert Canada which represents many organic growers,
said: "This year's contamination means we've lost the organic rapeseed
market and the organic honey market. Now we could lose the wheat market,
too."

Last year seed imported to the United Kingdom and planted on dozens of farms
was found to be contaminated by GM pollen and had to be destroyed.
Similarly, research commissioned by Friends of the Earth found GM
contamination in beehives 4.5km from the nearest field of GM rapeseed.

Last week a leaked memo from the EU's scientific committee proposed
extending the separation zones to 5km.

Monsanto denies that its plants could promote the development of superweeds.

In a statement it said that because glycophosphate did not linger in the
soil, weeds were unlikely to evolve resistance.