GM chief Chris Pollock refuses Meacher plea to scrap test

Paul Brown / The Guardian UK 12may01

Plans to assess the effect of GM crops on the countryside were in turmoil last night after the scientist in charge of the programme defied the environment minister, Michael Meacher, who asked for one of the trials to be called off.

Chris Pollock, from the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research, emailed the other five members of the scientific steering committee. He dismissed Mr Meacher's appeal to abandon the trial two miles from a world renowned organic centre as "political" and "good public relations" rather than scientific.

At least one member of the committee said he would have to consider resigning if Professor Pollock carried out his threat to refuse to end the trial. That would undermine the credibility of the trial programme because a "balanced" committee was chosen to represent all shades of opinion.

Mr Meacher was concerned that the trial at Wolston, Warwickshire, might wreck the organic status of the Henry Doubleday research association, Europe's largest organic organisation, because bees might carry pollen two miles to the organic fields.

If the trial was abandoned there would still be enough other sites in other parts of the country to provide a scientific basis to assess whether GM crops harmed the insects and birds on farmland more than conventional crops.

The trial is part of a three-year programme by the government designed to allay public fears about GM crops. One of the most controversial aspects of the trials has been the increasing evidence that bees carry pollen distances of up to five miles and it is possible that cross pollination with conventional and organic crops could occur.

This had already led to conventional crops having to be ploughed up because the seed was found to have been cross contaminated with GM crops. Yesterday Alan Gear, chief executive of Henry Doubleday said: "The professor's attitude is outrageous. In fact, I think it is scandalous.

"The risk of cross contamination is slight but it cannot be ruled and out. If it did happen we would risk losing our Soil Association accreditation and our organic status. This is not a political issue, it is a matter of protecting organic agriculture."

So far Mr Gear has relied on political and public pressure to end the trial. But last night he said that although his organisation was a charity with few funds it might have to resort to law. "We cannot afford to lose our organic status and we will fight for it," he said.

The Department of Environment confirmed last night that if Professor Pollock decided to defy Mr Meacher there was nothing the minister could do about it. "This maize has a licence to be commercially grown in the UK under an EU directive."

Mr Meacher has also written to SCIMAC, the industry body organising the trials, asking it to stop the Wolston trial. So far the minister has not received an official reply from either organisation.

The members of the scientific steering committee - two from the Game Conservancy Trust, one from the Morely research centre and one from the birds organisation, the RSPB - are banned from talking to the press. However, a senior scientist involved said last night: "This row has the potential to destroy the whole trial system. If the scientific steering committee fall out and start resigning the credibility of environment trials will be lost."