Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 2 • Number 2 • 7th February 2002
UK Report Assesses Danger of GM Superweeds
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UK Report Assesses Danger of GM Superweeds
A study of GM herbicide tolerant oilseed rape crops in Canada — commissioned by English Nature, one of the UK’s statutory nature conservation agencies — showed that genes from separate genetically modified (GM) varieties could accumulate (’gene stacking’) in plants that grow from seed spilled at harvest. As a result, these plants become resistant to a number of widely used herbicides and might require more environmentally harmful herbicides to control them. English Nature also expressed concern regarding the European Commission’s proposed 0.7 percent threshold for the amount of GM seeds allowed in batches of conventional crop seed, which it fears “might be a recipe for gene stacking”. The agency is now calling on the GM industry to deal with these issues before releasing GM crops rather than having to control the “rogue crop plants” once they emerge. “Environmentalists have been flagging up these warnings for years”, said Gill Lacroix, Biotechnology Coordinator at Friends of the Earth Europe, adding that these and other recent developments, such as a UK Royal Society report calling for improved safety testing of GM foods (see Resources section below), should make consumers in the EU even more wary of GM food products.
“GM crops May Become Weedier,” EN PRESS RELEASE, 5 February 2002; “government agency gives stark warning of environmental consequence of GM weeds,” FOE PRESS RELEASE, 5 February 2002.
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