open i

Victories by the anti biotech lobby during the British general election were limited to Wales and three kilometers around organic production. The government's science-based GM crop policy proved to be no embarassment.(660 words)

As anticipated the anti biotech lobby opposing genetically modified (GM) crops emerged from the wood work during the British election campaign after a period of senescence. They were successful in getting four of more than 80 farm scale environmental trails cancelled or moved, but it was anything but a vigorous performance and of minor importance in scientific or political terms.

Significantly the Labour government was not drawn into debate and its science-based policy did not become an embarrassment to it. The Conservative opposition did, however, make a minor and rather desperate last minute attempt to squeeze votes from the issue without it seems much success.

Three of the cancelled or moved trials were in Wales. The Welsh assembly back in May 2000 declared Wales a GM-free zone. This motion appeared to have no legal bearing with even the Welsh Secretary of Agriculture admitting as much. But as it had been requested by a petition with 10,000 names compared to 43,000 full and part time, mainly livestock, Welsh farmers, it is probably of some political significance.

In reality arable farming in Wales is very limited. Welsh farmers seed just 1.3 percent of the total UK cereal acreage.

The scientific steering committee over seeing the trials had, however, emphasized the need for a good geographic spread of trial sites even through it was known that the Welsh assembly had expressed an opinion. In the final analysis the wash out in Wales is unfortunate for those farmers wishing to use the technology, but means little in economic terms.

The site of the fourth trial at Wolston also had a characteristic which raised objections from opponents to the biotech. It is just over three kilometres from the Henry Doubleday Research Association's Ryton Organic Garden. The Soil Association which promotes organic agriculture in Britain has a policy of not licensing organic production within three kilometres of GM crops. It actively promotes the non-GM status of organic food.

Industry guidelines, developed by the Supply Chain Initiative on Modified Agricultural Crops (SCIMAC), for siting trial have respected this, although there seems more promotional than scientific justification for the distance policy.

With the Walston trial so close to the organic garden the Soils Association had a heaven-sent opportunity for free promotion. It wrote to the environment minister threatening to withdraw the organic garden's organic status unless the GM crop trial site was moved. In turn the minister asked the scientific steering committee overseeing the trials to have the Walston trial moved.

The committee came to what appears to have been a majority decision that there was no scientific basis for moving the trial. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), a large and well-financed conservation organization and a member of the committee, then took the opportunity to express its credential by threatening to withdraw from the committee.

Meanwhile SCIMAC was negotiating with the Soils Association on its threat to withdraw the organic garden's organic status. A further measurement confirmed that the organic garden was outside the three-kilometre radius, but the industry was undoubtedly mindful that the issue was being raised within the politically sensitive time frame of a general election campaign. SCIMAC appeared to agree to moving the trial when the Soils Association acknowledged that there was no legal or scientific basis for moving the trial.

While the anti biotech lobby may be celebrating some territorial victories, in the larger scheme of things it failed to press home the political advantage it may have felt it had during the election.

If the current three-year farm scale trials of GM crops are concluded without any important scientific environmental concerns, it would be reasonable to expect approval for their release for commercial production. The issue which will surely then come to the surface will be the rights of new or existing organic growers to a three-kilometre exclusion zone.

While the loss of Wales may not be significant, defending the three kilometre GM-free perimeters around organic gardens could provide lots of business for lawyers.

June 21, 2001