MPs to probe GM decision

Friday, 12 March 2004 12:00 AM

A parliamentary inquiry is taking placed into the government's decision to grant approval for genetically modified crops to be grown commercially in Britain

The House of Commons environment select committee will look at the implications of the move to allow the first GM crop to be grown commercially for animal feed.

The committee of MPs will examine the potential risk of cross-contamination, and who will be held legally responsible if it occurs.

The environment committee's investigation will also involve looking at the processes involved in determining how GM-free zones will be established at regional and local levels.

Interested parties are asked to submit written evidence by Monday April 19th.

Environment secretary Margaret Beckett announced that approval had been granted for a type of herbicide-resistant GM maize on Tuesday. The GM maize, ChardonLL, made by Bayer Cropscience, could be grown as soon as next year.

However, Ms Beckett also warned that the GM industry would have to foot the bill if farmers' livelihoods were threatened by their crops.

The GM industry is currently opposed to compensation, which is likely to deter farmers from growing GM crops until the matter is resolved.

Paul Rylott, the head of BioScience UK at Bayer CropScience, told the Guardian that there was no evidence genetic modification was harmful and therefore no grounds for a compensation fund.

"We have not been asked to do anything of the kind anywhere else in the world, we do not intend to start in the UK," he added.

Ms Beckett has also revealed that the government opposes the growing anywhere in the European Union of beet and oilseed rape, the two other GM crops involved in recent tests.

The GM maize licences would expire in October 2006, she told MPs, and could only be renewed on the basis of scientific analysis.

Environmental groups are furious about the government's decision to approve commercial cultivation of GM Maize, which they claim goes against popular opinion.

Sarah North, Greenpeace GM campaigner, said: "Who on earth is Tony Blair listening to? He's given the nod to GM maize based on trials that anybody with a passing knowledge of A-level science would be able to tell you were flawed."

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