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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@gilanet.com>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Two-Thirds Of ALL Crops In US Now GM Contaminated
  • Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 06:50:09 -0600

Two-Thirds Of ALL Crops In US Now GM Contaminated
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/environment/story.jsp?story=498693
By Geoffrey Lean
The Independent - UK
(First published 3-7-4)
5-10-4


More than two-thirds of conventional crops in the United States are now
contaminated with genetically modified material - dooming organic
agriculture and posing a severe future risk to health - a new report
concludes.

The report - which comes as ministers are on the verge of approving the
planting of Britain's first GM crop, maize - concludes that traditional
varieties of seed are "pervasively contaminated" by genetically engineered
DNA. The US biotech industry says it is "not surprised" by the findings.

Because of the contamination, the report says, farmers unwittingly plant
billions of GM seeds a year, spreading genetic modification throughout US
agriculture. This would be likely to lead to danger to health with the next
generation of GM crops, bred to produce pharmaceuticals and industrial
chemicals - delivering "drug-laced cornflakes" to the breakfast table.

The report comes at the worst possible time for the Government, which is
trying to overcome strong resistance from the Scottish and Welsh
administrations to GM maize.

The House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee drew attention to the
problem in North America in a report published on Friday, and said the
Government had not paid enough attention to it. The MPs concluded: "No
decision to proceed with the commercial growing of GM crops [in Britain]
should be made until thorough research into the experience with GM crops in
North America has been completed and published". It would be
"irresponsible" for ministers to give the green light to the maize without
further tests.

Peter Ainsworth, the committee chairman, accuses the Cabinet of "great
discourtesy" to Parliament by making its decision on the maize last
Thursday, the day before the report came out, and plans to raise the issue
with the Speaker of the House.

This week's statement by Margaret Beckett, Secretary of State for the
Environment, is expected to fall short of authorising immediate planting of
the maize, and provide only a muted endorsement for the technology. She
will make it clear that the Government wants the GM industry to compensate
farmers whose crops are contaminated. This could make cultivation
uncommercial. The US study will increase the pressure on her to be tough.

Under the auspices of the green-tinged Union of Concerned Scientists, two
separate independent laboratories tested supposedly non-GM seeds
"representing a substantial proportion of the traditional seed supply" for
maize, soya and oilseed rape, the three crops whose modified equivalents
are grown widely in the United States.

The test found that at "the most conservative expression", half the maize
and soyabeans and 83 per cent of the oilseed rape were contaminated with GM
genes - just eight years after the modified varieties were first cultivated
on a large scale in the US.

The degree of contamination is thought to be at a relatively low level of
about 0.5 to 1 per cent. The reports says that "contamination ... is
endemic to the system". It adds: "Heedlessly allowing the contamination of
traditional plant varieties with genetically engineered sequences amounts
to a huge wager on our ability to understand a complicated technology that
manipulates life at the most elemental level." There could be "serious
risks to health" if drugs and industrial chemicals from the next generation
of GM crops got into food.

Lisa Dry, of the US Biotechnology Industry Association, said that the
industry was "not surprised by this report, knowing that pollen travels and
commodity grains might co-mingle at various places".





  • [Livingontheland] Two-Thirds Of ALL Crops In US Now GM Contaminated, Tradingpost, 05/10/2004

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