Beckett is Blamed as Bayer Bins GM Plan 

JOHN MASON / Financial Times (UK) 30mar04

Bayer CropScience is giving up attempts to commercialise GM maize - the only transgenic plant to have approval for widespread cultivation.

The German biotechnology company will on Wednesday announce its maize variety Chardon LL had been left "economically non-viable" because of conditions Margaret Beckett, environment secretary, imposed when she gave it limited approval this month.

Chardon LL was developed for approval in 1999 but, as the controversy over genetically modified crops slowed its introduction, it lost its edge against rival varieties.

Bayer warned that the UK's tough GM regulatory regime could jeopardise the adoption of the technology. It said: "New regulations should enable GM crops to be grown in the UK - not disable future attempts to grow them".

The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said: "We do not apologise for the fact there is a tough EU-wide regulatory regime on GMs."

Bayer's decision to withdraw the crop from the UK and other European markets means GM crops are unlikely to be grown in the UK until 2008, when GM oil seed rape may be approved for cultivation.

Chardon LL gained approval after trials showed it caused less damage to wildlife than conventional varieties, but ministers have yet to decide rules for mixing GM and non-GM crops and compensation for contamination by GM pollen.

Bayer said: "These uncertainties and undefined timelines will make this five-year old variety economically unviable".

Bayer insisted it was committed to GM crops in the UK and the rest of Europe. It is trying to improve farming practices for GM oil seed rape to make it less environmentally damaging.

Monsanto, its US rival, is making similar efforts to overcome the environmental handicaps of sugar beet.

Many thanks for sending this article to the Natural Law Party Wessex 31mar04

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Bayer Can't Blame Government for GM Maize Withdrawal

Soil Association Press Release, 31 March 2004

The Soil Association today accused Bayer of being deceitful when they put the whole blame for their withdrawal of GM maize on the UK Government.

Peter Melchett, the Soil Association's policy director, said "Bayer are blaming their withdrawal of GM maize from the UK on 'regulatory hurdles' imposed by the British Government. In fact they have been caught out by their own, inaccurate hype.

"GM companies have always claimed that GM crops need less chemical sprays. In the three-year farm scale trials Bayer's GM maize was grown with the use of one weed-killing spray. But Soil Association research in the USA and Canada had already shown that GM maize grown commercially needed at least two weedkillers. Indeed, GM companies in America are even selling branded mixtures of weed killing sprays to farmers growing their GM crops, so they can hardly deny that several sprays are often needed.

"Unfortunately for Bayer, the British Government took them at their word, and said that their GM maize could only be grown using one weedkiller. Based on experience in North America, Bayer know that won't work in practice. In these circumstances, its really not surprising that Bayer have withdrawn the GM maize, effectively ending the prospect of any GM crops being grown in the UK for the foreseeable future."

For media enquiries contact Simon Toseland, Soil Association Press Office, 0117 987 4580 or stoseland@soilassociation.org