Trials of GM maize threaten unique organic seed cache

Colin Brown and Geoffrey Lean Independent (UK) 6may01

GM maize is to be grown in an officially sanctioned trial close to Europe's largest research centre for organic crops, threatening the future of organic farming in this country.

The trial, which is due to begin this week in Warwickshire, is bound to spark the biggest row yet in the controversy over GM crops in Britain.

Environmentalists yesterday said that the effects could be "truly catastrophic" for organic agriculture, and an MP said that he would support direct action to stop it.

The experiment, part of the Government's official "farm-scale trials" of GM crops, is to take place within two miles of Europe's largest research centre for organic crops at Ryton, near Coventry. The centre ­ run by the Henry Doubleday Research Association ­ carries out trials on organic crops for the European Union and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and is home to one of the world's foremost organic seed banks.

The threat is so serious that Michael Meacher, the Environment minister, is this weekend making an unprecedented last-minute bid to stop the trial, which he says is seen as "highly provocative", even though his own department announced it a month ago. Neither he, nor the government committee that authorised the trial, was aware that it was close to the research station when it was given the go-ahead.

The Soil Association warns that the GM maize ­ being tested by the food firm Aventis at New Farm near Wolston, Warwickshire ­ could cross-pollinate with three crops of organic sweetcorn grown at Ryton, and in turn contaminate the seed bank. Any trace of GM in the association's fields would lead to it losing its licence to grow organic crops, and pollution of the seed bank would strike a devastating blow to the world's attempts to save rare varieties of foodstuffs.

"It is hard to overstress how serious this is," Patrick Holden, the director of the Soil Association, said yesterday. "The effects of this trial could be truly catastrophic both for the research station and for organic farming as a whole. This is the worst example so far of a programme of insidious pollution of the world's food crops by the GM industry."

Mr Meacher told The Independent on Sunday last week: "Clearly there has not been proper consideration of the impact of the choice on a highly prestigious organic research centre of this kind."

He said he was writing to Aventis, SCIMAC (the industry body overseeing the trials) and the official Scientific Steering Committee that authorised the use of the site to ask them to reconsider. In a separate but related move, he is also asking for the sowing of two sites at Mathry, Pembrokeshire, to be delayed so that there can be more consultation with the public.

But late last week Aventis said that all three sites would be sown this week. The firm added that the farmer at the Warwickshire site had rung to ask what he should do, and had been told to go ahead.

Mr Meacher is credited with having given the Government's GM policies credibility and a degree of public acceptability after its initially strong pro-industry approach ran into opposition. But he is being increasingly marginalised in Whitehall, and repeatedly out-voted on the cabinet committee in charge of GM policy.

Environmentalists alleged that GM firms had "pulled a fast one" on Mr Meacher in an attempt to discredit him before a post-election reshuffle. The industry denies this, though it privately makes no secret of its desire to have him sacked.

Although Mr Meacher's department announces the sites to be used for the trials, he has no part in choosing them.

Dr David Gibbons, a member of the committee, told The Independent on Sunday late last week that it had not been told of the sites' proximity to the Ryton research station. Roger Turner, SCIMAC's chairman, said yesterday that there had been no attempt to deceive the committee. He added: "If there is a reaction to this site, the industry needs to sit down and think about whether it should go ahead."

But Aventis said that "politics was now getting involved" with a site chosen by an independent scientific committee.

Last night Alan Simpson MP said he would support direct action to stop the trial. He said: "This shows the contempt in which the industry and advisers within government now hold democratically elected views. It shows that the only way in which something can be achieved is by taking direct action, and highlights what the 1 May protesters were saying."