GM War on Weeds
'Can Kill Small Birds'
IAN CLARKE / EDP24 (UK) 30jul03
GM crops could have a serious impact on Britain's already beleaguered farmland birds, a new report including research in Norfolk revealed yesterday.
The Hawk and Owl Trust, which carried out the study on hen harrier diets, is hoping the findings will be important evidence in the national debate about GM crops.
The trust believes the introduction of new farming practices – such as genetically modified herbicide-tolerant crops designed to control arable weeds – could increase the pressure on birds like skylarks, linnets, greenfinches, reed buntings and dunnocks.
Roger Clarke, Pete Combridge and Nigel Middleton collected and analysed pellets from harrier winter roosts in North Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and Hampshire.
Fewer small birds are surviving the winter because of a widespread and dramatic reduction in food.
Dr Clarke said: "The most telling factors in the decline of weed seeds in recent decades are the development of more effective herbicides, the competitive density of modern crops and the widespread shift to sowing cereal in the autumn, rather than the spring.
"GM crops could put further pressure on the winter survival of already threatened farmland birds."
Dr Clarke described the findings as "eye opening", and added: "It highlights what is at stake. We are already very concerned about decreases of the population of farmland birds."
He said the information would be passed on to "anyone who would listen".
A conference is due to be held in London in January on the whole issue of GM crops and birds.
The 16-page report has been published in the latest edition of the British Birds journal.
It was launched at the opening of the new reserve at Sculthorpe, which was once a communal winter roost site for hen harriers.
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