New twist in anti-GM action

Farmers Weekly interactive 10 June 2002

By Johann Tasker

 http://www.fwi.co.uk/article.asp?con=3668&sec=18&hier=2

SCIENTISTS are investigating claims that activists are ruining genetically
modified crop trials by over-planting them with conventional seed.

Until now, environmental campaigners have been more usually associated with
ripping up GM crops.

But an email purporting to be from a group calling itself the Brassica
Broadcasting Corporation claims to reveal a "new twist" in direct action.

Environmental activists sowed a conventional rapeseed crop over the whole
area of a GM oilseed rape trial at Alderminster, Warwickshire, it says.

The midnight operation was carried out undetected earlier this spring, and
the conventional crop is now at the same stage as the trial crop, claims the
email.

This has changed the density of the control crop, added crop debris to the
herbicide-resistant crop, and renders the results of the trial dubious, if
not invalid, it adds.

A spokesman named in the email as Ronnie Rape is quoted as saying: "If crops
are given a commercial licence many more actions like this can be expected."

Paul Rylott, head of bioscience at Aventis, the biotechnology company which
developed the GM rape used in the trial, said the email was probably a hoax.

"The farmer in question is not aware of there being any unusual increase in
plant population after the crop was drilled," he said.

But independent GM crop scientist Geoff Squire told Farmers Weekly that
although the email may be a "virtual" spoof it deserved to be taken
seriously.

Dr Squire works for the Scottish Crop Research Institute, which monitors GM
crop trials.

He said: "It is feasible to do what they have claimed and, if the claim is
true, there are several ways in which the experiment could be damaged."

The effect on the trial would depend on how much conventional oilseed rape
had been broadcast on top of the GM oilseed and when, he said.

If it was sown before the resistant GM crop had been sprayed with herbicide,
then the non-resistant conventional plants would have been killed off.

But if it was sown later on, then there may be a marked difference in the
crop density when compared with other trial data.

"I think we would need to take this claim seriously and ask the local
scientific coordinator to keep a close eye on it," said Dr Squire.

Experimental protocols involved in GM trials include crop density
mesurements, he added.

"An unexpected change in density in the sample would stick out like a sore
thumb and if there is something out of the ordinary then it should be picked
up."